Finding A Way To Vermont
by romanticgirlgeek
Summary: Just when Fitz is coming to terms about moving on, he gets a phone call... Can he and Olivia find a way back to Vermont? Post Season 5. Rated M for adult themes and eventual sexual content.
1. Time to Move On?

**Author's Note:**

 **This fanfic is trying to make lemonade out of the Season 5 lemon we got as Olitz shippers.**

 **I broke my cardinal rule about not starting a new story when I haven't finished (or almost finished) one I have started unless the new story is a one-shot. However, I felt the muses crying out and had to heed to the call.**

 **My fanfic writing is my therapy for Olitz breakup unless there is a 12-step program for Olitz addicts somewhere out there.**

 **This story isn't a rewrite of Olitz canon or an attempt to course correct for Season 6 but rather creating a story would allow Olitz to live on after Season 5 and what the world of SR and SP has in mind for Season 6 is anyone's guess.**

* * *

Fitz was settled in his private office/study room on Air Force One sipping Scotch while watching the latest TV news report on Olivia. Olivia was recovering from emergency brain surgery to remove a blood clot that she sustained after she fainted, tumbled down a flight of stairs and hit her head when her body made contact with the landing. Fortunately, Olivia was surrounded by people when the accident happened. She was with Mellie on a campaign trip in Boulder, Colorado and the Secret Service agents who were assigned to protect Mellie as the Republican presidential candidate called for help immediately.

According the news report, the surgery went well and Olivia should be fine. However, commentators and analysts were focused on the impact of Olivia's medical situation on Mellie's campaign. Olivia would be out of action for a few weeks as she was recovered from the accident and surgery. While the brain injury was the most critical, Olivia also suffered a broken arm which was now in a cast. Fortunately, the broken arm was a simple break and not a compound fracture which would have required surgery to set it with pins and plates.

Fitz was in Germany when he heard the news about the accident. He was attending an economic summit with his Treasury Secretary Jason Lau on monetary valuation, with a particular focus on the future of the euro and how the underlying problems that lead to the devaluation of the euro remain persistent. As the soon-to-be exiting POTUS, he put in his two cents at the summit but his fellow summit attendees probed him to get a sense as to what his future successor's thoughts on the matter. He politely told them they should ask the presidential candidates themselves. Just because one of them was his ex-wife, it didn't mean he knew what Mellie's thoughts were on the future of the euro.

He used Abby as his intermediary to get information on Olivia's condition when he heard about the accident. As much as he wanted to talk to Olivia, he thought it would be best he didn't. While there was the practical matter of Olivia being incapacitated from the accident and not being unable to speak, he was also trying to maintain his distance with her after their talk about her "choices". He was still hurting it from it.

Despite telling Jake he was happy he was free, Fitz knew it was a lie. He was wrestling the conflicting emotions of loving Olivia entirely with his heart and the need to cast her out of it. Olivia couldn't see or didn't want their dream of jam, Vermont, and kids anymore. He couldn't want the dream anymore if he just him wanting it. He needed to move on, or at least to stop loving Olivia long enough for him to love someone else and build a different set of dreams and hopes. Even though he was in his mid-50s, Fitz still hoped for the possibility of a second marriage and having a second family. Granted, it wouldn't be the same with someone else but he would have the chance to be happy.

This was something he would work on after he left office. As a sitting "bachelor" President, trying to have a dating and love life was extremely difficult. Not only were there privacy issues but also he was an easy target for flattery and charm as he quickly learned from his experience with Lillian Forrester and his parade of one-night stands. Lillian was someone who he had been attracted to and thought as possible dating and may be girlfriend material but she had used him for her professional gains. The parade of one-night stands was his way of self-medicating to deal with the pain of losing Olivia.

The use of Abby as his intermediary was also the best alternative he had since he didn't want to call Mellie to ask about Olivia. After Mellie's "lovely" speech to him at the Republican Party convention, he thought it would best for him to stay away from Mellie for his emotional and psychological preservation. Mellie and Olivia hadn't asked him to campaign for Mellie and this suited him just fine. He didn't need to get into an emotional maelstrom with his former wife and former girlfriend at the same time.

Abby called on her former OPA colleagues, Quinn and Huck to ask about Olivia. Fortunately, the hostility between the White House camp and the OPA camp over the Republican party nomination race abated enough that Quinn shared information with Abby on Olivia's condition during those initial hours after the accident. Abby gave him an update as needed while he was in Germany.

After Fitz and Jason Lau boarded Air Force One for their return trip back to the US, they had dinner in his private office/study as they recapped points from the summit. As they were having dinner, Ethan, who accompanied them on the trip as the Acting Press Secretary since Abby's promotion to Chief of Staff, debriefed the press corps who traveled with them to the summit. Members of the press corps did ask questions about Olivia's accident. Ethan, the ever consummate professional just answered that the President hoped Olivia to get well and be back on her feet soon.

When he and Jason finished their dinner, Jason expressed his thanks to him for his hospitality and left the room. After Jason left, Fitz turned on the TV that was in the room to watch the latest news highlights of the day as he decompressed from the exhausting summit with his favorite Scotch. As soon the latest report of Olivia's finished airing, a report about this year's presidential race would be one of firsts, the first female and the first Hispanic nominees for president, and an openly gay man as the vice-presidential nominee, followed it. Fitz stay tuned to watch the report to see there would be any mention of Mellie's and Cyrus's past relationship to each other.

While Fitz was watching the news program, there was a knock on the door. He instructed the person to come in. A flight steward entered the room and said, "Mr. President, there is a phone call from your daughter. We are patching her through to you."

Fitz said "Thank you" before the steward left the room.

Karen was with Mellie in Colorado for the campaign trip even though Karen had been desperate to get out of it. She told him that she wanted to go to Europe with him instead being on the trail with Mellie. However, Mellie and Olivia put their foot down and insisted she go with them to Colorado. As it was, he wasn't seeing much of Teddy because he was also on the trail with Mellie. Mellie and Olivia thought the presence of Karen and Teddy would help Mellie with the mommy vote.

 _Mommy_ , as the word echoed in Fitz's head. The one word he hoped that he would get to hear Olivia to be referred to as. However, Olivia didn't want to hear it, and perhaps she didn't want it at all. Or perhaps, Olivia didn't want it to be their children to call her that and was reserving the right to children she wanted to have with someone else. Like Jake. Even though Jake was now married to Vanessa, it didn't mean he couldn't get a divorce. He could get a divorce when he became Vice President, with Olivia figuring out a way to make it happen while managing the optics.

Fitz had been pre-occupied with the thought of his broken dream when the phone rang in the room. He picked up the handset and answered, "Hi, sweetheart, what's up?"

"Dad, you need to come to Boulder. It's an emergency. It's Olivia," said Karen in an alarmed voice.

"What's wrong with Olivia? I just saw a news report that said she was fine," responded Fitz while trying to maintain a calm voice.

"I can't talk to you about it over the phone but you need to come," insisted Karen.

Before Fitz could respond back, he could hear some background noise before another voice came on the phone.

"Fitz…"

Fitz immediately recognized the voice. "Mellie, what's going on? What's happened to Olivia?"

"Fitz, you need to come to Boulder. Now." There was a pause before Mellie said in a pleading tone, "Please."


	2. What Happened to Olivia in Boulder?

**Author's Note:**

 **Warning: I used a cliché gimmicky plot device to bring our lovebirds back together. Just chuck it up as a desperate measure on the part of this broken hearted Olitz shipper.**

 **In regards to Andrew Nichols's death, need to remember that Fitz doesn't know Olivia is suffering from PTSD.**

When Fitz probed Mellie for more details as to what was going with Olivia, Mellie maintained her stance and said she couldn't talk about it over the phone but he was needed in Boulder. When he heard Mellie say "please" again, he knew the situation was serious. Mellie was never one for niceties and saying "please" wasn't her style.

As soon Fitz ended the call with Mellie, he hung up and picked the handset again and asked the on-flight communications officer to connect him to Abby at the White House. Since it was daytime in the US, Abby should be at her office. A few minutes later his call was went through.

"Hi, Fitz. What's up?" asked Abby. Abby knew something happened since Fitz called already called her on his cell phone right before he boarded on Air Force One for the trip back to DC.

"Abby, can you reach out to Olivia's team to find out what has happened to Olivia? I got a call from Karen telling me that I need to go to Boulder because something happened to Olivia. Even Mellie asked me to come and she used the word "please" with her request. They say they can't tell me over the phone."

"Sure thing. Are you going to go? If you are, we are going to need a cover story for it unless you want the press to know that you are visiting Olivia out of concern."

"I'm going but this shrouded mystery has me worried. The fact Mellie said "please" makes it even more alarming. Yes, we are going to need a cover story. I'm not taking the press corps with me to Boulder."

"I'll call Andrews to have another plane ready for you to take you to Boulder once you land at Andrews." Air Force One was the name designated to a plane that POTUS was flying on and there were two designated planes for POTUS to fly on. Abby then added, "I'll call someone on Olivia's team to find out what's happening. You don't have anything pressing on your schedule and either Susan or I can cover for you."

"Thanks. How's Susan doing?"

"She's fine. Now that we know the truth, she's carrying on and being the best Vice President she can be with her time remaining in office."

"Good. She'll keep me honest and I'll be the best President I can be with the remaining time," responded Fitz. The sting of Mellie's tirade still lingered with him.

"Good. And with the two of you keeping me honest, I'll be the best Chief of Staff while you are still President, Fitz. I'll call you back as soon as I can," said Abby before she hung up her office phone.

After Fitz placed the handset back on the cradle, he wondered what the hell was going on with Olivia in Boulder. Thirty minutes later, Fitz got a call from Abby on the study/office phone.

"You are set for the flight to Boulder. I didn't make any accommodation arrangements for you, though. If you need to spend the night, we'll need to make the proper arrangements for you," said Abby in her Chief of Staff persona. "I got a hold of Quinn but she gave me the same the line that you got from Karen and Mellie. Something has happened but she couldn't tell me over the phone. She did ask if you were coming and when I said yes, she gave thanks and praise to God and whatever divine forces existed. As per Mellie's instructions, there will be a car waiting for you at Buckley Air Force Base to take you to the hospital where Olivia is."

"None of this sounds good. Have you come up with a cover story for the trip to Boulder?"

"What Ethan and I came up with over the phone is that you want to see your children. The press corps won't question about not being be able to tag along."

"I can live with that. I do want to see them."

"However, should you get into a situation where you are campaigning for Mellie while you are out there, then that might cause problems."

"Not going to happen. Mellie and Olivia haven't asked me to campaign for them and I'm not volunteering myself to do it. Should they ask, we'll deal with it when we cross that bridge."

As soon as Germany flight Air Force One landed at Andrews, Fitz and the White House staffers, the Treasury Secretary and his staffers, and the White House press corps got off the plane. With the exception of Fitz and his Secret Service detail, everyone else got into cars that were waiting on the tarmac to pick up their passengers. As everyone was driving off, Fitz and the Secret Service agents who came to relieve the Germany trip team agents got onto another plane that was now designated as Air Force One headed to Boulder. Ethan gave a short briefing to the press corps to tell them the President was headed to Boulder to see his children who were with their mother on her presidential campaign trail. He successfully managed to deflect any questions as to whether Fitz was actually going to Boulder to see Olivia or whether he will be campaigning for Mellie.

After the ground crew located Fitz's luggage on the Germany flight plane and transferred it over to the Boulder bound flight, the new Boulder trip Air Force One underwent its standard pre-flight check before taking off into the air. Since Fitz had been flying for more than 8 hours from the Germany to Andrews trip and adding on another 4 hours to Boulder, he had spent half a day flying. He walked around the plane to keep his circulation going as advised the White House medical team to avoid the problem of blood clots forming from sitting too long while flying.

When Air Force One landed at Buckley in Aurora which was the closest Air Force base to Boulder, there was an unmarked black SUV waiting on the tarmac for Fitz and his agents. As soon they settled into the car, the car made its 40 minute ride to Boulder and the car stopped at the hospital where Olivia was in. As soon as Fitz and his agents got out the car, the agents from Mellie's detail coordinated with Fitz's detail to bring him into the hospital privately. Fitz guessed Mellie and/or Olivia's team made the arrangements to have this happen. Whatever was happening, Mellie and Olivia's team were keeping it as secret as possible and somehow his presence was needed which also had to be kept a secret for obvious reasons.

Fitz was escorted into an underground elevator which took them up. Once Fitz and the agents got off the designated floor, they took another elevator. When the elevator door opened, Fitz saw a hospital floor that was looked empty for the most part. Mellie's agents lead Fitz and his agents down a wing where Fitz saw Karen standing there waiting for him.

"Dad, you're finally here. I'm so happy to see you," she said as she gave Fitz a hug. Fitz hugged her back. He missed his princess.

"I'm happy to see you, too, sweetheart. What's going on? Where's your mother?"

"Mom is having a freak out moment and one of Olivia's team members is trying to calm her down. Think of me as your advance team, Dad," said Karen with an air of maturity. Karen then directed her father to a private empty room where the two of them sat down on couple of empty chairs next to each other.

"Dad, Mom and Olivia's team haven't been forthcoming about Olivia's medical condition."

"Is the head injury more serious? Is she is a coma?" asked Fitz while trying to maintain his panic.

"No. It's nothing like that. When Olivia was brought into the hospital, she had to have scans done to see how serious the head injury was. When the doctors were doing the scans, in addition to finding the blood clot that formed from her hitting her head on the stair landing, they also found a brain tumor."

Fitz was stunned silence with the news that his Livie had a brain tumor. As Fitz remained silent, Karen continued on talking. "When the doctors told us about the brain tumor, they said they didn't know if they could remove it during the surgery to take care of the blood clot. The first priority was taking care of the clot and if Olivia was stable enough, they would take care of the tumor. If she wasn't stable enough, they would leave the tumor in and if she got better, they would biopsy it to find out if it was cancerous or not."

"If she got better? What's that supposed to mean?"

"The doctors didn't know how serious the blood clot injury would be until they did the surgery. There was the possibility the head injury from the fall was more likely to kill her than the tumor," said Karen while trying to maintain a calm voice. Despite all the crazy publicity attention that her dad and Olivia got for their affair and the embarrassment it caused for her at school, Karen liked and cared about Olivia. She was still dealing with the trauma of reliving the image of watching Olivia tumbled down the flight of stairs and hearing her body land with a hard thump.

"Were the doctors able to remove tumor during the same surgery or is she going to need to have another operation to have the tumor removed?"

"Luckily, Olivia came through the blood clot removal surgery fine so the doctors were able to focus on the tumor afterwards."

Given the all the privacy and information security measures that Mellie and Olivia's team put in place, Fitz had a horrible feeling the news wasn't going to be good about the brain tumor surgery. A presidential campaign manager diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor would be devastating for the campaign and the candidate.

Despite all that has happened between him and Olivia, Fitz would be there for her assuming she wanted him to be there for her. He wanted to know how aggressive the tumor was and what treatment options were available. "How bad it is, Karen?"

"Well, the good news is that the tumor wasn't cancerous. The doctors think the tumor has been growing slowly. They say that non-cancerous tumors grow more slowly because they are less aggressive."

Fitz was relieved to hear the news that Olivia didn't have cancer. After thinking for a moment, if Olivia didn't have cancer and she got through her surgery for the blood clot in her brain, Fitz couldn't figure out why all the secrecy and more importantly, why was he needed to be here. "If Olivia is going to be ok, why I am here? Why is there all this secrecy about Olivia's medical condition?"

"The doctors said when people have brain tumors, they have different types of symptoms. The most common one is headaches. However, another symptom is personality changes and cognitive changes, you know, making decisions, judgment, that sort of stuff."

"I understand. How does this relate to Olivia?"

"Dad, have you noticed any changes in Olivia's behavior? The types of decisions she was making? Did anything seem off to you?"

When Fitz heard Karen's questions, he reflected the time they were living together in the White House. She made the decision to conspire with Mellie to let Rowan out of prison. She said she did it save him and his presidency. He assumed she did it because she didn't want to marry him. There was her decision to have the abortion which he just accepted as her right to choose and it hadn't been the right time for them to think about children, or the more heart breaking reason for her doing it was she didn't want have children with him, if truth be told.

Olivia had demonstrated aggressive, or to which he referred to as "top dog" behavior while living in the White House. There was also her passive-aggressive behavior when she took on the White House ornamental role. The Olivia Pope he knew would have told him off and said she was a person if she felt she wasn't being treated right or being disrespected. Their epic breakup fight resulted in them trading mean and hurtful barbs to each other.

There was the situation of Andrew Nichols. Olivia had said killing him would be wrong but then only to beat him to death with a chair in the bunker. He had found her in a catatonic state and as he held her, he told her everything was to be ok and she just clung to him. However, when Abby came into the room, Olivia's demeanor completely switched with her telling Abby to never cross her again and giving Abby instructions on how to "handle" Andrew's death with the media and Lillian in a manner that was cold and detached.

"Dad, did you ever wonder why Olivia decided to help Mom run her presidential campaign? Especially since she was the one who helped Susan get elected as Senator and has been a cheerleader for Susan when everyone else has dismissed her."

Fitz was then thinking about the past few months during the campaign for the Republican ticket candidate. He had to be brought in to rein in Olivia from unleashing a destructive force against Susan when she discovered Susan had an affair and Casey's father wasn't Susan's husband. She had been so aggressive in her campaign for Mellie. He just presumed Olivia wanted to win just as he wanted win for Susan.

"Dad, now that she has the tumor removed, Olivia is starting to realize that she had made some not so good decisions during past several months. One of them is being Mom's campaign manager. The reason why Mom is freaking out is because Olivia doesn't want to be her campaign manager anymore."


	3. Yes, Mellie, You've Earned It

**Author's Note:**

 **I took some artistic license with Fitz knowing who is actually "running" Mellie's presidential campaign.**

* * *

Fitz was trying to wrap his head around what Karen just told him. Olivia had a brain tumor which caused personality changes and impaired decision-making. One of the bad decisions she made while she had the tumor was becoming Mellie's presidential campaign manager and now she wanted out. He wasn't sure if walked onto a low-budget movie or an over-the-top prime time TV soap opera on presidential election politics and this was the latest bizarre twist.

Even though the situation was off-the-wall but there was enough plausibility for the situation to be true and this was a serious situation. From Fitz's political experience, campaign managers usually don't quit especially after getting their candidate on the ticket. Campaign managers get fired by the candidates but they don't quit on the candidates. Campaign managers take on the role of candidates' cheerleader, therapist, and whatever supportive role the candidate needed to have to get to and through the election. For a campaign manager to quit with an election soon approaching, this was an absolute disaster. This was much worse than the situation of having a campaign manager with a serious life-threatening medical problem. Since this was a presidential campaign, the magnitude of the problem would be that much greater.

Even though Fitz understood the implications of Olivia quitting as Mellie's campaign manager, he didn't know what he was supposed to do about it. Fitz was about to say something when Mellie entered the room. Even though Mellie gave the appearance of looking calm, he could tell she was frazzled inside from the look in her eyes. Even though they were divorced now but from their long marriage together, there were things Fitz could pick up from Mellie just from looking at her.

"Fitz, I'm glad you are here. Did Karen tell you what happened?"

"Yeah, she did."

There was a brief awkward silence which got broken when Mellie said, "Karen, I need to talk to your father alone."

Karen gave each of her parents a quick glance before saying, "Sure. I'll be outside." Karen got up from her seat and leaving Fitz and Mellie alone in the room.

Mellie walked over to where Fitz was sitting and took the seat where Karen was sitting in previously. Mellie took a deep breath before saying, "I know I treated you horribly at the convention and I probably don't have any right to ask you for help but I need it."

"Mellie, what do you expect or want to me to do? I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do about the problem of Olivia not wanting to be your campaign manager anymore."

"I need you to talk to Olivia to convince her to honor her promise or commitment to get me elected as President."

Fitz raised an eyebrow and gave her an "are you out of your mind" look. Fitz couldn't believe Mellie was expecting him to "fix" her problem.

Mellie knew Fitz was reluctant in helping her. It wasn't just her burning her bridges with him, especially after all the things she said to him at the Republican convention but also Olivia had hurt him. Mellie knew Fitz still loved Olivia deeply and passionately and was still hurting from the break-up. Despite Fitz's acts of bravado of being fine without Olivia, she knew if Fitz could have his way, he and Olivia would be together. However, even Mellie knew only so much pain could be tolerated and Fitz needed to protect himself so he could move on.

"Fitz, I know I'm asking a lot from you but I need you to do this for me. I'm so close to having the Oval. I promise if you get Olivia to continue on as my campaign manager and get me elected, I will do everything I can to get the two of you back together. You'll get your happily ever after with Olivia."

Fitz gave Mellie an incredulous look. Regardless of what he wanted with Olivia, Mellie had no right to offer it as some kind of reward for a job well done.

He got up from his seat and walked away before turning to say, "Mellie, just stop it. You are talking about people's lives here. Neither Olivia nor I are for you to manipulate for your gains. I'm sorry that Olivia doesn't want to be your campaign manager anymore but the truth is she isn't in any condition to be your campaign manager after what Karen has told me. For God's sake, Mellie, Olivia just had major brain surgery and all you can think about is getting yourself to the Oval. Olivia needs to rest and to recuperate from the surgery."

Mellie also got up to stand closer to Fitz and responded with, "Despite what you may think, I'm not entirely heartless but the campaigning won't and can't stop. The amount of time Olivia needs to recover is too long for to ask Vargas and Cyrus for a moratorium on campaigning. It's at least a six week period, maybe longer depending on how Olivia feels."

"Mellie, there are two separate issues here. The first one is Olivia doesn't want to be your campaign manager anymore. I'm not going to talk her into doing something she doesn't want to do, especially in her current condition. Anyway, I shouldn't be the one talking to her about this. I don't have a role in her life anymore, other than being an ex. You should get Jake, your VP candidate to talk to her about this. They have had a close relationship…" but before Fitz could finish, Mellie interrupted with "He already tried but Olivia doesn't want to talk to him. In fact, she doesn't want Jake to come near her."

Fitz was surprised about Olivia's reaction to Jake. She always welcomed his attention and she had seemed genuinely hurt or heartbroken when Jake married Vanessa. He saw Olivia crying on Jake's wedding day. When he saw the tears, a part of his heart broke because he was coming to the realization Olivia wasn't in love with him anymore.

"Did she say why?" he asked.

"No." Mellie was trying her best to hold it together. "Fitz, I'm at my wits end with the situation. Olivia is so angry right now. She's mad at her team for not trying to stop her from making some of her bad decisions. She thinks I took advantage of her. She mentioned something about her father probably thought her behavior was normal because she was his daughter or she had finally become his daughter. She had to be sedated couple of times because of the emotional fallout as she became more fully aware of the things she did as the result of the brain tumor. Fortunately, she hasn't said anything or made any references about Andrew."

Mellie sighed and then said, "The only person Olivia is willing to talk to at any great length is Karen. She is the only person Olivia trusts right now because Karen wasn't around to see her behavior."

Fitz knew it was unfair for Karen to be dragged into the mess and needed to be left out of it. If Olivia felt the people around her weren't watching out for her when her behavior was getting out of hand and she was making decisions that didn't make sense, he didn't get a pass on the matter, either. "Mellie, if Olivia is angry with the people around her, she's probably angry with me as well."

"I don't think so, Fitz. When I told her you were coming, she just started crying and said she didn't know why you would bother coming to see her after all she had done. With Jake, she just yelled at him and told him to stay away from her."

Fitz sensed Olivia was in distress and just needed someone she could trust to comfort her at this time. Olivia just underwent brain surgery for two serious conditions, and one of them caused her to be a different person. Fitz recalled when he woken up from his coma after being shot in the head during his assassination attempt, his orientation of the world was skewed. Even though Cyrus was with him when he woke up, the first person he needed to speak to was Olivia – the one person who he trusted the most the world and he felt somehow talking to her would make it better.

"Look, I'll see her and talk to her, but not about being your campaign manager. Which leads to the second issue, Olivia isn't well enough to be yours or anyone else's campaign manager, even if she wanted to be your campaign manager."

"I need to have a campaign manager, Fitz and it has to be Olivia. You know she's the best and can me elected."

"No. There is someone better than Olivia and who has been playing all of us along with this election game. It's all been smoke and mirrors as to who has been running your campaign."

"What are you talking about, Fitz?" asked Mellie with concern.

"Olivia's father, Rowan. He's been setting all the pieces in the motion, Mellie. That's why you have Jake as your VP. It was all Rowan's doing. The man who murdered our son and who you helped to let out of prison is going to get you elected to the Oval. Olivia has been used as a pawn in Rowan's election chess game."

"How do you know this?" asked Mellie trying to mask her panic.

"As soon Jake became your VP candidate, I had a feeling something was up. Even though Rowan's secret spy agency has been more or less dismantled, there are a few covert intelligence sources I still have access to as POTUS. Whether or not Olivia knows about her father's role in orchestrating your candidacy, I don't know. If she did know and went along with it, you will become President Mellie Grant, for sure. At least the brain tumor provides a good explanation as to why she would go along with it. Rowan will make sure you will become president. The same way he made sure I got a second term. You just need to be ready to pay the price for it with Rowan playing the kingmaker. Remember this is a man who has no qualms about murdering children to make a point."

Mellie gave Fitz an astonished look as he continued on, "Rowan probably already knows through Jake that Olivia will need to drop out as your campaign manager. They will probably find some credible lackey to be the "new" campaign manager and will work it out so that your election campaign will continue on as is. Rowan will regard Olivia's accident and illness as a misfortune and he might stop long enough to check on Olivia but that's about it. Rowan's foremost priorities are the republic and power. The fact you want power fits right into his plans. After all, this is the real reason why you want to be POTUS. And yes, Mellie, because you wanted this, you have earned every ounce of it."

Mellie's eyes turned round as saucers while Fitz continued on talking. "What you will need to worry about is what kind of plan Rowan has in place to pull your strings to do his bidding once you are president, or worse, whether he has a plan lined up to have you kicked out as president so he can have Jake take over so he can pull Jake's strings."

Fitz looked at Mellie's shocked and astonished expression before finally saying, "Between flying back from Germany and flying out to Boulder, I've flown for over 12 hours, so I'm exhausted. I'm going to see Olivia before I call Abby to make arrangements for me to stay in Boulder for a couple days. During those couple of days, I will spend it with Karen and Teddy, and with Olivia, presuming she wants my company and feeling well enough for it. Other than that, any problems you have with your presidential election campaign, you will need to deal with them with Jake and Rowan. I'm not your campaign "fixer" and Olivia is no longer your campaign manager."

Fitz walked out of the room leaving Mellie speechless, somewhat frightened, and wondering how dangerous the game of presidential election was going to be for her.


	4. Fitz Comforts Olivia

**Author's Note:**

 **PTSD can also cause personality changes and impaired decision-making. PTSD combined with a brain tumor would probably cause an "off the wall" result.**

 **I have seen fanfic stories where Olitz's children are described to have Fitz's blue/cerulean eyes. Speaking as someone with a bio background, it is more likely their kids will have brown eyes since blue eyes are genetically recessive, that is, both parents have to have genes for blue eyes in order for the children to have blue eyes, but it is possible that Olivia could have genes for blue eyes depending upon her family history.**

* * *

When Fitz exited into the hallway from the room where he and Mellie was speaking in, he found Karen standing close by. He walked over to where Karen stood and said, "Karen, I'm going to have your agent take you back to your hotel. You've been at the hospital long enough. You need to have a break from being here…."

"Are you sure, Dad? I don't mind," responded Karen.

"It's good you've been so caring towards Olivia but she isn't your responsibility. I'll talk with her team to find out what the next steps are going to be regarding Olivia's care. That's something you don't need to be worried about."

"Ok."

"I'm going to be spending couple of days here in Boulder. You, Teddy, and I will have family time together while your mother deals with her campaign activities."

"That's great. When I get back to the hotel, I'll let Teddy know you are here. By the way, where you will be staying?"

"Don't know. I'll need to call Abby so she can make the arrangements. It's possible it might be the same hotel you are staying at since the Secret Service is already there and they have the place secure."

"It would be nice if you were." Then Karen gave Fitz a hug and said "I'll see you later, Dad."

"See you later, sweetheart," said Fitz as he gave Karen a kiss on the cheek. Fitz then gestured to Karen's Secret Service agent to come to him and he instructed the agent to take Karen to her hotel.

After Karen and her agent left, Fitz went looking for Olivia's gladiators and found them sitting in a lounge. As soon Fitz entered the room, the gladiators stood up as part of protocol of standing up when POTUS enters a room.

"Mr. President, we are happy you are here," said Quinn with relief.

"I would prefer to not having to be here under these circumstances. How is Olivia?" asked Fitz. Fitz realized since his arrival at the hospital, he hadn't even asked how Olivia was doing since had been so side tracked dealing with the issue of Olivia being Mellie's campaign manager.

"She's sleeping right now, sir. The good news is the doctors think she can be discharge in a few days," replied Marcus.

"Great. What's the plan of getting Olivia back to DC?

"We don't have one. When the whole issue about Olivia quitting as Mellie's campaign manager came up, we didn't put anything in motion concerning Olivia's return to DC since we didn't know if we continuing on with Mellie's campaign," answered Quinn.

"I'm sure Mellie appreciates your loyalty but we all know Olivia is in no condition to be her campaign manager. She is going to need time to rest and recover from the accident and the surgery."

"We know," responded Quinn. "Mr. President, we also know the reason why Olivia doesn't want to be Mellie's campaign manager anymore. She told us about her father's role in orchestrating the Republican Party ticket nomination and at the time, she went along with it because she wasn't thinking straight."

"At this point, the campaign shouldn't be your concern since Olivia is no longer Mellie's campaign manager. I told Mellie that the campaign is now her responsibility and she needs to work with Jake since Olivia isn't well enough to be her campaign manager anymore."

"Well, Jake isn't around so we are not sure what's going to happen next, sir," commented Marcus.

"Mellie did mention something about Olivia telling Jake to stay away from her."

"I think he may have flown back to DC to see Rowan," said Huck.

"I would agree with you, Huck," said Fitz. "Since the campaign is Mellie's and Jake's problem, not ours, we can focus on Olivia's discharge and figuring out what would be the best way for getting Olivia back home to DC. I'm going to be around for the next couple days spending time with Karen and Teddy. I'll provide any assistance to getting Olivia home."

"That's great, Mr. President. Thank you for helping us. Since we are Olivia's staff, we were in the cross fire between Olivia and Mellie, and with Olivia being sick, she isn't strong enough to stand up to Mellie," said Quinn happily.

"I'm glad I was happy to help. I need to call Abby to have her make arrangements for me to stay in town for the next couple days. After I speak with Abby, I'll go sit with Olivia for a while. Then, we can talk with the doctors to find out what is the best course of action."

* * *

During Fitz's phone call with Abby about arranging for accommodations for his stay in Boulder, she asked him what was happening with Olivia. Fitz was able to assure Abby that Olivia was fine but any more details about the situation would have to wait until he got settled into a hotel room.

After Fitz finished speaking with Abby about arranging his accommodation, he entered Olivia's hospital room. When he was standing next to Olivia's bedside, Fitz saw Olivia was sleeping peacefully and thought she looked so beautiful and delicate regardless of the bandages, cast, and bruises. Even though Olivia still had a IV connected to her, Fitz was grateful that Olivia didn't need to be hooked up to machines in order to keep her alive and had to have medical monitors to show her life signs to let everyone know she was alive. All he wanted to do was to take care of her and help her get better.

As Fitz watched Olivia, he knew in his heart that he could never stop loving Olivia. It would be same thing as asking him to stop breathing. Olivia Pope was the love of his life and he would have to accept the fact that he might be alone for the rest of his natural life. The thought of being in another marriage where he loved the woman just enough in order to be married to her would be the same kind of marriage he had with Mellie. He wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

Since Fitz was exhausted from the back to back trips, he was just wanted to sit and close his eyes. He pulled up a sofa chair next to Olivia's bed and sat down on it. He then took Olivia's hand that was closest to him and held it for a few minutes. After letting go of her hand, Fitz settled back into the chair and watched Olivia sleep and soon, he fell asleep, too.

* * *

 _Olivia is lying on a poolside lounge chair wearing a white swimsuit and has a pair of sunglasses covering her eyes. Her hair is in its natural curly state and is fanned across the pillow where her head is resting._

 _Olivia sees a beachfront which looks familiar. She realizes it is the island beachfront where she and Jake spent two months after Fitz's re-election. Where she and Jake ran away to be in the sun._

 _As Olivia is lying on the chair, her head is hurting tremendously and wants the pain to go away. She then sees a little a girl wearing a white frilly swimsuit running up to her side. The little girl is an adorable mini-Olivia with her dark curly hair, doe-shaped brown eyes, and pouty mouth._

" _Mommy, what's wrong?" asks the little girl looking down at her._

" _My head is hurting," replies Olivia._

" _I'm going to get Daddy." Before Olivia can protest, the little girl runs off and calls out "Daddy, Daddy, Mommy is not feeling well."_

 _While the little girl goes off to find Daddy, Olivia tries to make herself move. She doesn't want Daddy to find her. She is scared and needs to get away from Daddy. However, the pain is too much and her body feels too weak to move._

 _Soon the little girl comes back with a tall male figure wearing only a pair of swimming shorts coming up from behind her. Just when Olivia becomes apprehensive and expects to hear Jake's voice, she instead hears a concerned familiar baritone voice. "Livie, Arianna says you're not feeling well?"_

" _Yeah, my head hurts a lot."_

" _You've been sitting out in the sun too long. You know too much sun isn't good for you. I'm going to carry you back inside the house," says Fitz before he lifts Olivia up from the lounge chair. Just as Fitz lifts her up, Olivia wraps her arms around Fitz's neck and Fitz carries her as he walks across the sand. He shouts to Teddy and Arianna to head inside the house. Olivia can hear Teddy challenging his little half sister a race up to the house and the two run off._

 _As Fitz is carrying Olivia up some steps that lead into garden area, Karen comes into Olivia's sight. She is wearing a sundress and has a book in her hand. Olivia can hear Karen chuckling and teasing her father for being a show-off to wanting to let the world know he can still carry the love of his life at his age._

 _When Fitz steps inside the house, everything changes. Fitz is now wearing a suit and tie and inside of the house looks like the corridors of the White House. Olivia is now wearing a designer day dress. Fitz is still carrying her and she still has her arms around Fitz's neck. As Fitz is walking through the corridors, Olivia can see Abby, Susan, and Liz standing in the corridors. In the corner of her eye, Olivia catches a glimpse of David standing in the background._

" _Don't worry, sweet baby, I have you," says Fitz reassuringly. "Everything is going to be ok."_

 _Then the White House corridors change to a hallway in a large house. It is their house in Vermont. Fitz is now wearing a t-shirt and pair of jeans and she is also wearing t-shirt and jeans. Fitz carries Olivia into the master bedroom and sets her down on the bed. After setting her down on the bed, Fitz says to her "Just rest, Livie." When Olivia settles into the bed, a little boy comes running into the room. Just as the little boy climbs onto the bed to snuggle up to Olivia, Fitz says "Harrison, be careful. Mommy is not feeling well." The little boy is a mini-version of Fitz with his dark wavy hair, cerulean eyes, nose, mouth, and chin. The little boy looks up to Olivia and says, "Mommy, you need to get well so you can make your world famous strawberry jam for us."_

 _Then everything changes again with the room becoming dark and the pain in her head becomes unbearable. Olivia tries to fight off the pain but it becomes too much…_

Olivia's post-operative pain became too much to bear and caused her to wake up. She pressed the pain medication pump to release some morphine into her IV to help ease the pain. She expected to be alone in her hospital room until she turned her head and saw Fitz sitting on a sofa chair next to her bed. As Olivia watched Fitz sleeping soundly in the chair, she starts to cry. Between her bandaged head and her arm cast, she knows she looked horrible. She still had bruises from the fall. She didn't want Fitz to see her like this. Olivia was also feeling the shame of her behavior – behavior that hurt and damaged people.

Olivia's crying continued on to the point where she started to choke sob because she was so overwhelmed with emotions. Fitz woke up to the sounds of Olivia's sobbing. When he saw Olivia crying, he immediately got out the chair to sit next to Olivia on the edge of the hospital bed. He wanted to take her into his arms but couldn't because of Olivia's arm cast and IV.

"You came to see me," choked back Olivia. "I didn't think you would after everything that has happened."

"I'm here for you, Livie," said Fitz in a gentle voice. "Everything is going to be, ok."

"It can't be," countered Olivia. "Fitz, I've been this horrible monster of a person for the past several months and no one tried to stop me," said Olivia as she controlled her tears.

"That's not true, Liv. Your team did. Abby did. I did. However, we couldn't fight what was growing inside your head. Livie, you have always been a very strong person and when these changes were happening, we weren't thinking something was physically wrong with you. You are also someone who doesn't hold back when you have something to say. After all, we barely first met when told me why I wasn't going to elected President was because of my marriage. Something about me not screwing my wife," said Fitz with a slight chuckle. "That's pretty a bold thing to say in public. Had you always been a shy little miss and all of sudden you became this aggressive bull, we would have suspected something."

As Fitz stroked Olivia's cheek with the back of his fingers, he said "Now we know you were sick. You just need to focus on getting better."

"I hurt a lot people when I was sick."

"I know. For the people who love and care about you, Olivia, it will be ok. As I once said, love allows for forgiveness."

Since having the surgery to remove the brain tumor, her mind had been going through all things that she had done while she had been sick. The doctors said she probably had the tumor growing for a while. It was possible when she made the decision to have the abortion the tumor was growing in her brain. Olivia didn't know how Fitz could truly forgive her for the abortion even though he said he respected her "choice". The two of them having children together was something Fitz wanted so much. "Fitz, the baby…" but Fitz interrupted her.

He says in a soothing voice, "Livie, this isn't the time to talk about it. You just had major brain surgery. We can talk about it when you're stronger, all right?"

Olivia nodded her head. Having the abortion was only one part of the all the things she did that damaged her relationship with Fitz. There was also her behavior with Jake which she couldn't even talk about. _Fitz probably thinks I don't love him anymore,_ thought Olivia.

There was the matter of the election which she was responsible for as well. "Fitz, I did something horrible. My father planned for Mellie and Jake to be the Republican Party candidates and I…"

"I know."

"You know?"

"I know Rowan orchestrated the Republican Party ticket. I'm presumed you went along with it when you found out."

"I did," said Olivia crying a little harder. "Fitz, he played all of us and used me to do the dirty work."

"I know," said Fitz.

"My father was setting it up so I was the front person while he was in the background. I would have gone ahead with it hadn't been for the accident and finding out about the brain tumor."

"Even though I would never want you to have accident and to get seriously injured but in this case it was sheer luck. Did the brain tumor made you pass out?"

"No. Hypoglycemia. I haven't been eating right and skipping meals."

Fitz shook his head before saying "You are going to take better care of yourself while you are recovering. I'll make sure you will have other food besides popcorn and red wine delivered to you."

Fitz then added "I've already "handled" Mellie about you being her election campaign manager. I told her you need time to recover from the accident and surgery. I also told Mellie she didn't need to worry about the campaign because of Rowan. Rowan was going to get her and Jake elected."

Olivia knew Fitz was right that her father probably had a plan in place to have Mellie and Jake elected and with him in control of the White House. They had to stop it from happening.

"Fitz, we can't let my father do this…"

"That's my concern, Livie. You can't be worried about that right now. As I said before, your job is to get well after what you've been through. Having both a blood clot and brain tumor removed at the same time is serious. As you get better, don't beat yourself up on the things that you did. You were sick when it happened."

There was one thing Olivia did which she wasn't sure if it could be attributed to the brain tumor. "Fitz, about Andrew Nichols…"

"It's ok. Your judgement was impaired by the tumor."

"I don't know if was because of the tumor. I haven't told anyone but I'm suffering from PTSD from the kidnapping. When I was in the bunker with Andrew, he was taunting me and saying horrible things. At the same time, I was having flashback moments of the kidnapping. I got so angry that I hit him with the chair and just kept hitting him."

"People will understand, Liv. But you should get help for the PTSD," said Fitz sympathetically.

"I know but it's hard because of confidentiality and privacy issues. I need a therapist who is capable of maintain the highest level of confidentiality and privacy."

"Let me help you with that. You have gone far too long without help for the PTSD," said Fitz firmly. "Your team and I are going to talk with your doctors about your discharge and how to get you home to DC safely. Once you get back to DC, you'll do the things you'll need to help you get well and I'll be there to help you. You can count on me, Livie."


	5. Heading Home -- Not

Olivia was sitting up in her hospital bed watching some old movie on TV with Quinn sitting next to her bed. Quinn was keeping Olivia company during Olivia's final night of her hospital stay. While the doctors said Olivia would get discharged in a few days from Fitz's arrival in Boulder, the doctors was also allowing for Olivia to get discharged early provided she was discharged to the care of another doctor. As POTUS, Fitz always had to travel with a doctor and suggested the White House doctor who had traveled with him to Boulder to be the physician responsible for Olivia's care when they traveled back to DC on Air Force One, and once they arrived in DC, Olivia would get admitted to a local hospital so she could be monitored for little bit longer.

After Fitz spoke to the White House doctor, Dr. Paul Ellison, a former Navy pilot who served alongside with Fitz and used his GI benefits to pay for medical school, he readily agreed to help out with the situation. Paul, a trained trauma surgeon, offered to call some neurosurgery colleagues to find someone who would be the admitting hospital doctor when they got back to DC. Once Paul found a neurosurgery colleague, things were set in motion for Olivia to be discharged the same day when Fitz was planning to fly back to DC.

Since Karen and Teddy would be away with Mellie for the remainder of the campaign trail, Fitz was spending his last night in Boulder having dinner and spending time with them. Mellie had a campaign dinner to attend and which Marcus and Huck accompany her to the dinner. Since Jake hadn't resurfaced, Marcus didn't want to abandon Mellie and offered to go with her, even though Mellie was no longer OPA's presidential campaign client. Huck tagged along to provide additional support.

Fitz suspected the reason why Jake hadn't return from DC was Rowan was trying to find a new campaign manager to take over for Olivia – the credible "lackey" as Fitz put it. There weren't too many campaign managers who had the experience to deal with a presidential campaign. On top of that, the person would need to be willing to take orders from Rowan. While Olivia hadn't taken orders from Rowan, Rowan had anticipated Olivia's moves in advanced which was why he had so easily orchestrated the situation of Mellie and Jake getting the Republican Party ticket. With a new campaign manager, Rowan would have to be one calling the shots since he wouldn't necessarily have knowledge of how the campaign manager "ticked" to anticipate his/her moves.

Quinn only knew of only one person who had experience managing a presidential campaign and that was Leo Bergen. As much she disliked Leo, Quinn knew Leo would be smart enough not to get involved with Mellie's campaign unless he was forced to do so either by threat or blackmail. The situation of Leo being threatened by Rowan was not in the realm of impossibility but from what she heard, Leo was safely tucked away in Texas working another campaign unless Rowan was insane enough to drag Leo away from the Texas job to take on Mellie's campaign, and that was a situation that was also possible.

With no Jake in sight, Marcus didn't want Mellie to continue on with the campaign trail without support. The next stop on the campaign trail for Mellie was California. Marcus offered to accompany Mellie to California to help her out, and once Jake and the new campaign manager made their appearances, he would come back to DC. Quinn already made up her mind about going back to DC with Olivia. While Huck preferred to go back to DC, he didn't want Marcus to be dealing with Mellie alone. Also, Huck was expressed his private concerns to her about the situation. He was worried that Rowan was going to try something and Marcus being a "good guy" might not be able to handle Rowan.

Since Mellie had been former First Lady of California when Fitz was governor, there was a strong possibility that Mellie could take the state's Electoral College votes on Election Day. If that was the case, it would be a huge win for Mellie. However, Mellie also faced strong competition from Francisco Vargas on the account of the huge Hispanic/Latino population in California. Election analysts were speculating California was up for grabs between the two candidates. To avoid the situation of one candidate having an advantage over the other in campaigning in California, the two sides agreed to campaign at the same time.

Quinn could tell Olivia was happy to be going home tomorrow. She was happy Olivia wasn't in the same of state of emotional and psychological distress Olivia was in before Fitz's arrival. While Olivia would have "breakdown" moments now when she thought about the things she did when she had the tumor, she was overall calmer. Quinn knew Fitz had something to do with this. Quinn and her fellow gladiators were secretly thankful for Fitz's presence during this time.

When Olivia was well enough to talk after her surgery and told Mellie she didn't want to be her campaign manager, all hell broke loose. The gladiators knew there was only person who could step in to handle the situation and it was Fitz. However, they didn't know if he was going to come given all the Fitz-bashing that happened with Mellie and Olivia.

When Olivia and Mellie teamed up for the election, the gladiators had unfortunately been privy to Mellie's and Olivia's Fitz-bashing comments in meetings that made them uncomfortable. The worst Mellie's Fitz-bashing incident took place at the Republican Party convention. Even though Mellie and Fitz were alone in the convention auditorium, Marcus had been standing outside the door and could hear Mellie shouting at Fitz. Marcus stayed close by just in case the two of them got into a fight and he had to pull Mellie away. They understood Mellie's anger, after all, she was the ex-wife but they couldn't really understand what was going with Olivia. She and Huck knew Fitz really loved Olivia and would do anything in the world for her, which included starting a crazy war after she had been kidnapped. To the two of them, it seemed Oliva had forgotten how much he loved her and was acting as Fitz didn't matter to her anymore. At least now they know Olivia wasn't herself because of the brain tumor.

The fact he was doing everything he can to help Olivia get back to DC safely gave all indications that he loved and cared for Olivia deeply. With the brain tumor removed, Quinn was hoping Olivia was back to normal and Olivia and Fitz might have a chance to start over again. At least, with Olivia not being Mellie's campaign manager anymore, Olivia would be "separated" from Mellie and would have a different perspective about Fitz since they weren't together.

Quinn was also hoping things would get back to normal, or as normal it can be for the world of OPA with OPA no longer handling Mellie as its client. She was tired of having to deal with Mellie and them being solely focused on getting Mellie elected. If Quinn had her choice, she have worked on getting Susan the nomination. Both she and Huck liked Susan better than Mellie. However, she and Huck had a funny feeling that Marcus had a thing for Mellie now and may have secretly wished for Fitz to have convinced Olivia to stay on as Mellie's campaign manager so he could be around Mellie. Neither she nor Huck knew what to do about Marcus's feelings for Mellie.

Quinn noticed Olivia barely touched her hospital dinner that was sitting on her hospital overbed table. Not that Quinn thought the meal that was brought to Olivia was all that appetizing but Olivia did need to eat to gain her strength as part of her recovery. "Hey, Liv, do you want something else to eat? I know the meatloaf sitting on that hospital tray doesn't look great."

"I'm not really hungry, Quinn."

"How about I get you some popcorn?" asked Quinn. Even though popcorn wasn't exactly a balanced diet but it was something Olivia did enjoy and it might get her to eat something.

"Ok."

"I'll be back soon," said Quinn as she got up from her chair. "Text me if you want something else as well. There is a Mexican place that is close to the convenience store where I'm going to get the popcorn."

"I will. Thanks, Quinn."

"Sure thing," said Quinn before she left the room. Quinn took the two different sets of elevators that led from Olivia's private floor out to the underground floor of the hospital, the same path Fitz and his agents had taken when he came to see Olivia during the past couple of days. For one visit, Fitz and Karen took Teddy with them to see Olivia. Teddy made a cute little get-well card for Olivia and when he gave it to her, Olivia started to cry. When Teddy asked if he could sit next to her on the bed, Olivia moved over to one side so to let Teddy sit next to her.

As Quinn walked out of the underground floor out the street, she was thinking what the doctors told them about Olivia's prognosis. All in all, Olivia should be fine from both the brain trauma injury and the tumor. Olivia had been lucky on both counts in the blood clot that formed was just sitting on top of the brain with no bleeding inside the brain, and the type of brain tumor she had, it was unlikely it would come back. However, the doctors did forewarn them Olivia might be a different person now after the tumor removal surgery. When Olivia had the brain tumor, she had become a different person but with the tumor gone, she might be a different Olivia Pope from the one before getting sick. They needed to be prepared for emotional and psychological changes in Olivia.

The Olivia Pope Quinn knew before getting sick wasn't overly sentimental and probably wouldn't have cried over receiving a get-well card. Even though Quinn didn't think Olivia hated kids and thought she got along with them, especially with older kids, Olivia didn't necessarily come across as the "mommy" type. However, when Teddy climbed into bed with Olivia, she started ask him questions that a "mommy" would, such as how was he behaving, what was he doing at the hotel, was he enjoying time with his father. Not that is was nauseating to see this behavior coming out of Olivia but rather it was unexpected. Quinn did noticed Fitz getting emotional as he watched Olivia and Teddy together.

The convenience store Quinn went to was only a few blocks away from the hospital. When she entered the store, she saw there was a group of customers shopping and making purchases. The popcorn selection at the store was limited in that the store didn't have Olivia's favorite gourmet brand, so Quinn opted for a bag of plain popcorn from a national "non-gourmet" brand. Since Olivia couldn't have any alcohol because she was taking oral pain medications now with her IV removed, Quinn got a bottle a grape juice as a substitute for red wine. She then made a quick browse through the aisles to see if there was anything else to get. As she was browsing through the aisles, Quinn got a text from Olivia asking her to get a chicken burrito with extra hot sauce on the side. She was happy to see the text from Olivia. It meant Olivia wanted to eat some real some food and gaining her appetite back.

After paying for the popcorn and grape juice, Quinn left the convenience store to head towards the Mexican restaurant which was only a few blocks away from the store. Quinn ordered the chicken burrito for Olivia and decided to get an order of nachos supreme for herself. Since the restaurant was busy with both eat-in and take-out customers, she had to wait awhile for their orders. Once Quinn got their orders, she left the restaurant to head back to the hospital.

When Quinn got off Olivia's hospital floor, she sensed something wasn't right and quickly headed towards Olivia's room to check on Olivia.

Quinn called out "Olivia. Liv," in a loud voice but she didn't get reply back.

As soon as Quinn pushed the door open, she saw an empty bed with the TV still on. She immediately checked the bathroom to see if Olivia was in there and may have passed out from being weak but the bathroom was empty. Quinn quickly pulled out her cell phone from her pant pocket and called Huck.

"Please, please, answer," Quinn said as a fervent prayer.

Quinn was relieved when she heard the Huck answered, "Hi, Quinn. What's up?"

"Huck, someone has taken Olivia. I went out to get some food for us and when I got back, she wasn't here, " she said in a frantic voice.

"Damn. It must have been Rowan," responded Huck in an angry voice. "We are about the wrap up here at the dinner. Just get back to the hotel. Rowan is probably going to call Mellie to tell us what he wants."

"Ok."

After Huck got off the phone with Quinn, he informed Marcus of Olivia's abduction and they all needed to get back to the hotel as soon as possible. When Mellie was done saying thank-you and good-byes to the dinner organizers and her supporters, the two of them pulled Mellie aside from her agents to let her know Olivia had been taken from her hospital room.

"Shouldn't we call the police?" Mellie asked in a frantic voice.

"No. Rowan has her. The police won't be able to do anything to get her back. We need to get back to the hotel and wait for Rowan to contact us to tell us what he wants in exchange for Liv."

Mellie then asked, "What about the agents? Shouldn't we tell them what's happening? Maybe they can help."

"No," responded Huck emphatically in a low voice. "Trust no one, Mellie. We don't know if they might be working with Rowan secretly."

Mellie understood what Huck was saying. When Olivia had been kidnapped by Andrew Nichols's hench team, as part of ensuring Fitz would do what Andrew wanted, Andrew somehow arranged for the Secret Service agents to be loyal to him and to monitor Fitz's movements.

"What about Fitz? He has to know," said Mellie.

"We tell him when we are back at the hotel. I think whatever Rowan wants is going to involve the President. Rowan is going contact the President through you."

The three of them along with Mellie's agents got into their cars and headed back to the hotel. Huck, Marcus, and Mellie acted as if nothing unusual was happening while they were in the car. As soon they got back to the hotel, they asked Secret Service to allow them access to the President on the floor he was staying at. They took an elevator which was programmed to allow them to get off the floor where Fitz was staying on. As soon they got off the elevator, they hurried to his room.

The agent stationed in front of the room received a call informing him that Mellie, Huck, and Marcus was coming to see the President, and when the agent saw the three of them, he let them into Fitz's room. Fitz had also received a call from Secret Service letting him know that three of them needed to see him about something important.

"What's going on, Mellie?" asked Fitz in a concerned voice.

"Someone took Olivia from her hospital room. Huck believes it's her father who has done it."

Mellie half expected Fitz to fly into a murderous rage over Olivia being taken but to Fitz's credit, he was trying to be calm as possible.

Fitz asked Huck "Are you sure it's Rowan? I don't want us to lose time finding Olivia if it's someone else."

"Rowan would make the most sense, sir. At this time, no one else would have a motive in taking her since Olivia is not your girlfriend anymore and the only client OPA has right now is Mellie and her presidential campaign. Unless it was someone from Vargas's camp but I don't think so. Francisco Vargas doesn't do things underhandedly and won't tolerate that type of behavior from anyone on his team."

"I don't think Cyrus would do something like this, Fitz," said Mellie.

"I don't so, either," concurred Fitz.

"Mr. President, we'll have to wait for Rowan to contact us. More likely, you're the person he wants to talk to but he'll have to call Mellie to reach you," said Huck in a somber tone.

Fitz nodded his head and sat down on the sofa. Everyone else also sat down in the living room area and waited for the phone call to come from Rowan. A few minutes later, Huck received a call from Quinn. He instructed Quinn to come to Fitz's room. Quinn soon joined them in the wait. A quiet tension filled the room as they waited for the call.

As Fitz was sitting on the sofa, he was thinking how everything changed in a matter of hours. Only a few hours ago, he, Karen and Teddy had dinner in his suite. Afterwards, he had playful romp with Teddy before taking Teddy to his room on the floor he was staying with Mellie to tuck him into bed and to read him a bedtime story. Even though Teddy has his nanny with him, Fitz missed the little moments with young son and being able to do the bedtime routine meant a lot to both Fitz and Teddy. After he was done taking care of Teddy, Fitz spent time with Karen before she went to bed. During the past couple of days, the two of them had alone time to talk about things that were causing Karen concern or worry while being on the trail, such as memories of Jerry's death, how the campaign trail felt "weird" to her because of Olivia's behavior, and she thought there was something "creepy" about Jake even though her school friends thought he was cute.

Mellie's cell phone rang an hour later.

"Hello," answered Mellie is a firm voice. She didn't want the person on the other end to know she was terrified. "Yes, he's here." Mellie then handed her phone over to Fitz.

After taking Mellie's phone, Fitz answered "Hello." Even though Fitz knew it was probably Rowan, he didn't want to presume it was him.

"Mr. President, I think we are long overdue for another reunion meeting," said the all too familiar voice.

"Rowan, what have you done with Olivia?" asked Fitz in an angry threatening voice.


	6. Rowan's Other Play

**Author's Note:**

 **Many thanks to my fellow fanfic readers and writers for following and/or favoriting this story.**

 **Sorry for the delay in the posting installments to the story. Writing muses are in overtime between a work-related project and fanfic writing.**

 **I went through a number of revisions with the story arc. I hope you enjoy.**

 **Just a reminder – DC is two hours ahead of Boulder, Colorado.**

* * *

 _ **Couple hours before Olivia's abduction in Boulder**_

 _Washington DC_

David Rosen was sitting in his neighborhood favorite Chinese restaurant waiting for his take-out order. He decided to pick up his dinner on his way home rather than going home and having the food delivered. There was also the option of eating in but he wasn't in the mood to eat alone in the restaurant. Also, he had a stack of White House documents he needed to read through and reviewing these documents in a public place wouldn't be appropriate. He didn't want to lose his job as special advisor to the President at the White House as the result of misplacing a White House document in a restaurant or be caught reading it out in the public.

David was grateful he had a proper job after having to resign as the US Attorney General because of the Governor Louise Barker incident. Governor Barker's appeal to him to terminate the Justice Department's investigation of the sugar industry was a set up and part of Rowan Pope's orchestration to have Susan be eliminated as a Republican Party presidential candidate, with Mellie and Jake as the Republican Party ticket. When Fitz learned the truth about Rowan's plot, he offered him a job at the White House to be a special advisor to the President.

Only he, Fitz, Susan, Abby, and Liz at the White House knew the truth about the fixed presidential ticket. Life was getting back to normal at the White House, or as normal as it could be since it was the White House. Everyone was staying focus with work and using the remaining the time to do as much as possible in terms of getting legislative items passed and completing initiatives that were implemented during Fitz's time as president. David was thankful he was finishing his professional life in the Fitzgerald Grant III presidential administration with some dignity. He didn't even dwell on the situation had he been on the quick he could have been the Democratic Party vice presidential candidate rather than Cyrus Beene.

After the restaurant hostess handed him his takeout order, David walked out the restaurant and headed home. As he was walking home, he sensed someone was following him but when he turned his head, he didn't see anyone. He continued on his walk with a heightened level of awareness of his surroundings. When he was about to reach the end of a corner block, two men came around the corner and were walking towards him. David had a feeling the two men were going to approach him so he turned around to head in the opposite direction but when he did, another two men walked towards at him from the opposite end. He soon found himself surrounded by the four men and just when he thought he was about to be attacked, a compact limousine pulled up to the curb. The four men pushed him into the car and when he landed inside the car, David found himself staring into Rowan Pope's face.

"David, it's good to see again," said Rowan with a smile that caused the hair on the back of David's neck to stand up. For David, it was not good to see Rowan Pope.

"What do you want, Rowan?"

"You'll find out but first we are going for a ride," replied Rowan.

While Rowan and David were going for a ride, Abby, Susan, and Liz were having a girls' night out at Gettysburger. Since it was a work night, the night out would end early enough for everyone to go home to get enough sleep to start an early work day. A night out at Gettysburger was a compromise because Susan wasn't much of a drinker and they all wanted to throw caution out the window for the night with their caloric intake.

Upon finding out about the fixed Republican presidential ticket, the three women formed a bond. The bond was based on common experience working together for a common goal, dealing with defeat, and all linked together by a common foe. As part of the bond, the of three of them were spending time together outside of work.

With Susan being the Vice President, they had the luxury of having the entire restaurant all to themselves as a security measure. So they were able to indulge in burgers, fries, and thick milk shakes without the public or the media gawking at them or making comments about their menu choices. As they were eating, Abby scanned the room and saw Susan's Secret Service agents standing at key posts around the room. She also noticed the agents on Susan's detail weren't her usual agents. "Susan, do you get new agents?"

"Yeah. I was told it has something to do rota changes. New agents replacing the old agents because of assignment changes," replied Susan after she swallowed a mouth full of burger. She was enjoying her evening out with her colleagues-friends. While she regarded Abby more as a friend in comparison with Liz but even Liz was warming up to her as a sort-of friend.

Although Susan and Liz were the single working mothers in the group, each of them was able to indulge in a girls' night out on a school night. Casey was at a classmate-friend's home working on a school project and having dinner with the friend's family. However, Susan needed to be home in time to say good night to Casey and find out how her day went. Liz called her daughter's sitter early enough to ask her to stay longer to watch Jane. She told the sitter that she would be home in time to tuck Jane in bed and to read her a bed time story.

Since learning about Olivia's medical situation, they were still processing the information the Olivia they had been dealing with for the past several months had been a different person because of a medical problem. "So, ladies, gossip time," said Liz in a low voice. "Now that we know Olivia was a power hungry psycho because of a brain tumor and the President is bringing her home on Air Force One, do you think this means the two of them are getting back together?"

Both Abby and Susan were silent to Liz's question. For Abby, she was getting information about Olivia second handed through Fitz or the OPA gladiators. Once Fitz told her about Olivia's brain tumor, she called Quinn to get the low down on the situation. Abby was extremely concerned about Olivia's well-being and her dealing with the aftermath of the brain tumor. She still regarded Olivia as her best friend even after what happened during the past few months with the election, as well as Andrew Nichol's murder and was feeling protective over her. While Quinn told her that Olivia was doing better since Fitz's arrival, it didn't mean they were ready to get back together. Olivia was still recovering from her surgeries and probably wasn't in the place to think about her relationship with Fitz. Perhaps when she was fully recovered, she might be able to.

Susan maintained her silence out of respect. She didn't like to gossip about other people, especially when she didn't want people to gossip about her. Also, she was also dealing with her own messy love life. After finding out David had been set up to drop the sugar industry investigation, she wasn't as angry at him and was on the path of forgiving him. However, with David working at the White House as a special adviser to the President, they were running into each other and the two of them were figuring out their work "relationship" as they were trying to rebuild their personal relationship.

"I take it as "no comment" since the two of you are both stone silent," said Liz with a chuckle.

"Would it be a big deal if they did get back together?" asked Abby. From a practical standpoint, if Olivia and Fitz were to get back together, there would be the media attention about the seriousness of the relationship and fueled speculation about them getting married but it wouldn't be the same crazy madness when their relationship became public.

"It depends. Is America going to get a new First Lady before the President's term ends?" countered Liz.

Susan couldn't resist the urge to chime in. "He would have to work fast if he wants Olivia to be his First Lady since his term will be ending a few months."

"We could have the situation of the President marrying Olivia on January 19th, the day before a new president is inaugurated. Olivia would go down in the history books as First Lady for one day, which could be a new record," said Liz before a grabbing a French fry from their shared plate.

While the three women were talking, they hadn't noticed one of Susan's agents getting a phone call on his cell phone. After the agent finished the call and put his phone away, he gave a nod to the other agents. The agent closest to the door opened the door and Rowan and David, who was surrounded by couple of men, entered the restaurant. Rowan was carrying a laptop and two manila envelopes with him. The agents, Rowan, David, and the men who surrounded David began to approach the table where Abby, Susan, and Liz were sitting. When the group stopped at the table, Abby was stunned to see Rowan. Before Abby could say something, Rowan said smoothly "Good evening, Abigail, Madam Vice-President, and Ms. North". As Rowan was talking, the two men who surrounded David pushed him into a chair. The three women noticed David looked slightly bruised up from his encounter with Rowan and his men.

"Rowan, what do you want?" asked Abby while trying to hide her fear.

"Rowan?" repeated Susan. She remembered Fitz said it was Olivia's father Rowan who orchestrated the Republican presidential candidate ticket so Mellie would get the nomination. Liz also recognized the name and knew who he was as well.

Rowan then handed a manila envelope to Susan and Liz and said in a firm voice "Open it."

After Susan and Liz opened their envelopes, they pulled an assortment of pieces of papers and looked through them. Even though Abby and David had no idea what were in the documents Susan and Liz were looking at but they could tell from their facial expressions they were horrified with the information they holding in their hands.

Rowan then opened up the laptop and brought up a video feed image of Leo Bergen in an abandoned warehouse, tied up and with his mouth taped over. Abby, Susan, Liz, and David saw the man on the laptop monitor and then looked at Rowan.

"Abigail, no doubt you want to see Leo alive and well," said Rowan. "Madam Vice-President, Ms. North, to ensure your dirty secrets remain secret, and David, to avoid making your life circumstances from getting any worse, the four of you will need to do the following…"


	7. Fitz's New Ammunition

**Author's Note:**

 **Since the world of SR and SP gave us Rowan Pope as Olivia's father – secret spy and trained killer who is also ruthless (after all, he did arrange for Jerry to be murdered), for this fanfic, I'm evening up the odds for our love birds with Fitz having a family member who is a secret spy (and yes, she can kill but only does so when she has to) plus her colleagues who are on the side of angels, or as much as possible when one is a secret spy and trained killer…**

* * *

 _Post 5x13, The Fish Rots From the Head_

Fitz was sitting in his unmarked SUV with his agents traveling to the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Abby received a call earlier in the day from CIA Director Marsha Lowry stating she needed to meet with him and the meeting couldn't wait. Also, the meeting had to take place at the CIA and after work hours.

In Fitz's mind, a late night meeting at the CIA was always ominous and usually involved some national security threat only the CIA and the White House could know about. After the way his personal life was going off the rails with the parade of one-night stands and Teddy finding a strange woman in his bedroom, along with the White House crisis of coping with the Secret Service murder scandal, he needed to get his act together. Adding insult to injury was having Olivia showing up at the Oval giving him a lecture about his behavior and her not so subtle comment about him becoming just like his father. That comment hurt him the most. Dealing with a national security threat of the highest magnitude was what he needed to get himself back on track. He hoped whatever the threat was, it was something "manageable," or as manageable it can be when dealing with a national security threat.

When the SUV stopped in front of the CIA building, one of his agents opened the car door for him to exit out with another agent ready to open the door to the building for him to enter. Once Fitz and his agents entered the building, they were greeted by the security guard and proceed ahead to the secure elevator they would take to get to the floor where the Marsha's office was located.

After they got off the elevator, they walked down a long corridor to the CIA Director's office. The agent opened the door to the anteroom for him to enter and when Marsha's secretary saw him, the secretary picked up her desk telephone's handset to intercom Marsha to let her know he arrived before entering her office. The secretary gave the nod to an agent so the agent could open the door for him to enter Marsha's office.

After he entered Marsha's office, she greeted him with "Good evening, Mr. President. Thank you for coming," as she gestured Fitz to sit on the sofa in her office. "Would you like some coffee or something else to drink?"

"No thanks, Marsha. What's up?" said Fitz as he sat down on the sofa. Marsha sat across from him on a leather upholstered chair.

"Before I begin, I just want to assure the reason why I called you out here to Langley is not because there is a security or intelligence threat."

"That's good to know. So, why am I here after hours meeting with you?"

"Mr. President, there is something you need to know." Marsha then paused before continuing on to speak. "Contrary to what you may know about the CIA's covert operations, B6-13 was only one unit. B6-13 was one of our core five covert units."

"I see," said Fitz as he pondered Marsha's statement. B6-13 was for all intents and purpose defunct. He wondered if he was at the CIA because something happened to one of the other units. "Has something has happened to one of the other units."

"If you are asking if the integrity of the remaining units have been compromised, they haven't been. However, after the arrest of Rowan Pope, the CIA did some cleaning house after a long and extensive internal investigation and review to ascertain as to why and how B6-13 became such a powerful unit within the CIA…"

As soon Fitz heard the name Rowan Pope, he immediately stiffened. His son's killer was free from prison due to the efforts of his ex-wife and ex-girlfriend. Fitz's visceral response to Rowan's name being mentioned did not go unnoticed with Marsha. As CIA Director, she was among the handful of people who knew of the truth concerning the death of Fitzgerald T. Grant IV and the matter of Rowan Pope being out of prison. Marsha also knew she had a role in allowing Rowan to evade when former Chief of Staff Cyrus Beene intimidated her to not to investigate Rowan.

Marsha continued on, "The truth is B6-13 was never meant to be a "large time" operation but it became one due to lack of oversight."

"No doubt the fault of your predecessors," commented Fitz with a hint of sarcasm.

"Partially, yes. But also due to the leadership of the other covert units," Marsha responded back. "Even though you took the liberty of removing Rowan Pope as the head of B6-13 and named Jake Ballard as his replacement but there are aspects of the internal operations of the CIA which I'm not at liberty to share with you and this is for your protection. It's a situation, the more you know, the more you will be held accountable for the CIA. And yes, as the president, there are things you need to know, but you don't need to know everything, if you understand what I am saying."

"I understand."

"What you need to know as part of oversight process with the covert units is the directors of those units are also held accountable each other in a sort of checks and balance system so that no one director is more powerful than another director, and the CIA Director ensures the checks and balance system is in place and having final oversight should there be a problem. However, you didn't know this. When you appointed Jake Ballard as the new head of B6-13, it made the process of finding out what was happening with B6-13 a bit more challenging for us since Jake felt he was taking orders from you and not from the CIA."

"I see," said Fitz. It was basically Marsha's way of saying, "Mr. President, you messed up the CIA but it's not your fault" in extremely polite terms. "So why did things go wrong?"

"A simplified view of the situation was that the old guard of directors weren't able to handle Rowan and rather than admitting they needed to step down to allow a new group of directors to step in to take charge of the situation, they simply allowed Rowan to run amok. To cover up their inability to handle Rowan, the other directors hid the truth from my predecessors."

"So, I'm presuming there are new set of directors in place," said Fitz trying to hide his sarcasm. In Fitz's mind, it was a measure that took place too late to save his son.

"There are," responded Marsha. Although Marsha didn't feel personally guilty or responsible for Jerry's death but she knew the CIA held some responsibility for Jerry's death as the result of not reining in or controlling Rowan when it had the chance to. One reason why she called Fitz to Langley was to let him know the CIA was owning up to its organizational failure which she was doing. However, there was another reason why she called him to Langley. Not to say what she was about to do would make up for the CIA's failure but at least it would help Fitz even up the odds in any future encounter with Rowan and no doubt in Marsha's mind, it was going to happen so long as Rowan was alive and free. Marsha knew there was only one solution in handling Rowan and she was able to give Fitz the ammunition he needed to deal with Rowan once and for all.

Marsha continued on, "Mr. President, as a general policy of the CIA, the directors of the covert units are not supposed to have any interaction with you as the President and this goes back to the matter of there are some things you don't need to know. Obviously, that policy was violated with Rowan and there were various reasons as to why that happened."

Fitz understood what Marsha was saying. Both he and Rowan played a cat and mouse game with each other because of Operation Remington but also because of Olivia.

"However, I'm going to breach policy by introducing you to one of the new directors. Let's go for a walk, Mr. President," said Marsha as she got up from her chair. Fitz got up as well and followed Marsha. She opened the door and the two of them along with Fitz's agents walked out the anteroom of Marsha's office and all of them walked down a hallway where there was an elevator at the end. They all entered into the elevator and Marsha placed her hand on the palm pad to activate the elevator to go down.

When the elevator doors open, Marsha guided Fitz and his agents through a long corridor and then turning to another corridor before stopping in front of closed office. Marsha knocked on the door and they heard a female voice say, "Come in."

One of Fitz's agents opened the door for Marsha and Fitz to enter into the office. When they entered the office, Fitz saw a tall woman who looked like Maggie Smith in her 40s, although in reality she was older than she appeared, standing in front of a large wood desk prepared to greet them. Once they were inside the office, the agent closed the door so to give them privacy.

"Mr. President, may I present Victoria Bradford, Director of Alpha Response. Alpha Response oversees internal or domestic threats."

When Fitz heard the name "Bradford", the name sounded familiar to him. It took him a moment to remember Bradford had been his maternal great-grandmother's maiden name. However, the last name Bradford was a common enough last name that he doubted there was a family connection. Also, the name Victoria Bradford could be a cover name for the Alpha Response Director.

Fitz extended his hand to shake Victoria's hand and said "A pleasure, Ms. Bradford," to which she accepted with her own hand for a handshake and responded back with a smile, "It's an honor to finally meet you, Mr. President."

"Thank you."

After making the introduction, Marsha said "I'll leave the two of you alone to talk," before leaving Victoria's office.

When Marsha left, Victoria gestured to the sofa in her office and said "Please have a seat," as she walked over to a side table that had a crystal decanter of scotch and glass tumblers sitting on top of a sterling silver round platter. Victoria poured the liquor into two glasses and brought the two glasses to the sitting area. When she handed one tumbler to Fitz, he said "Thank you," as Victoria sat the upholstered chair across from him. After they each took a sip of their drinks, he said "Good stuff."

"I'm glad you like it. I'll be sure to send a bottle to you for your birthday."

Fitz was taken aback slightly with Victoria's generosity since they just met but she smoothed the situation over by saying "It's the least I can do for a cousin's birthday."

"So, we are related. I wasn't sure since Bradford is a common last name."

"We are, Mr. President, or can I call you Fitzgerald? Since we are related, I was thinking we can drop the formality of your title. I know you prefer Fitz but I prefer Fitzgerald."

"Before I agree, can you tell me how we are related?"

"Your maternal great-grandmother and my paternal great-grandfather were siblings which would make us 3rd cousins. If you want actual proof of us being related, I'm more than happy to take a DNA test."

"No, I believe you. The fact you have excellent taste in scotch is all the proof I need," said Fitz with a smile as he raised his tumbler before taking another sip.

Victoria laughed at Fitz's comment. Then Victoria's demeanor changed and said "Fitzgerald, I just want to say how truly sorry I am for the loss of your son, Jerry. Since I'm not a parent, I'm not going pretend I have any knowledge of the magnitude of your loss."

"Thank you, Victoria. Or do you prefer Vicki?"

"Either one is fine with me," replied Victoria. "I also know our cleaning house here at the CIA comes too late after what has happened. Not just about Jerry but also with West Angola debacle. Had my predecessor been on the ball, we would have stopped Andrew Nichols from trying to execute his presidential coup from the outset. Andrew's attempted presidential coup became a tipoff that something was wrong and B6-13's activities coming to light with the Justice Department was the broken dam. These are breaches of security that should have never occurred in the first place."

"I'm presuming new measures are in place to prevent these breaches from happening again."

"There are. Obviously, we all hope these types of breaches will never happen again and we will do our best to prevent it but we are human so there is an element of fallibility."

"I understand. Speaking as the President, I'm happy changes have been implemented to pre-empt future events."

"Fitzgerald, since I work for you, I need to speak to you in a manner that respects your title and position, however, as a family member, albeit we are meeting for the first time, I'm inclined to be less reverent to you, so I'm apologizing in advance if I say things that may seem out of line but it's because I give a shit as to what happens to you."

"Well, that's good to know. I don't seem to have a lot of people on my side these days," said Fitz with a chuckle.

"This meeting we are having isn't just about the CIA getting its house in order but also about Rowan Pope. I know at this point, it's not about revenge but rather justice and how can justice be achieved if Rowan is free. We also know the reason why Rowan is not sitting in a prison. Frankly speaking as a relative, you don't need enemies when you have an ex-wife like Mellie and an ex-girlfriend like Olivia."

Fitz was about to defend Olivia when Victoria interrupted with "You don't need to defend Olivia. I know how much you love her and why she did it. However, she had been manipulated by Rowan in thinking he was one who had the answer when he wasn't the only person who could have saved you. Granted, given how the impeachment hearing snowballed after Mellie's testimony which goes back to what I said about you not needing enemies, you and the White House were in super panic mode about saving you and your presidency. Also, you didn't know about me so you couldn't have known you had someone on the inside working to save you and your presidency. I took it upon as a personal mission since it was failure of the CIA to stop Andrew Nichols from launching his coup. At the time, I wasn't the director of Alpha Response but I was high enough on the ladder I able to execute some maneuvers but they needed time to be put into effect. Had I been the director at the time, it would have simply been a matter of me picking up the phone informing someone to destroy any record of you seeing Olivia's recorded message of her being kidnapped. However, had my predecessor been on the ball, any record of you seeing the recorded message would have been destroyed right from the start."

Victoria paused before saying "My appointment as Director of Alpha Response is fairly new. I'm sparing you the details of the clean out process but it has taken a while for the CIA Director to clear out the old guard and to bring in the new guard. However, with Mellie and Olivia being able to get Rowan out of prison, my predecessor's days were numbered from that point. As part of the bringing in the new guard is the agreement between the Director and the heads of the covert units are the heads of the covert units would be made known to you so you have a solution to the Rowan problem."

Victoria looked at Fitz directly in the eye and said, "So long as Rowan is free, he will be a threat, not just to you and Olivia personally, but also to our country. While he says what he does is for the republic but at the end of the day it's really about power and him showing that he has power while using the republic as his justification. I know you, David Rosen, as well as Olivia and her team have tried to take him down through legitimate means but all the best you could get him on was tax evasion, rather than for the real crimes he has committed. I also know you've tried not so legitimate means by using Jake Ballard as a hit man, and no offense, that's amateur hour. The truth is with an old master spy like Rowan, they only way you can take him down is with another master spy or a group of master spies who know what they are doing. You need the real deal and which is what is being offered to you to POTUS starting today."

Victoria stood up and said, "Fitzgerald, there are some people I want you to meet. If you don't mind, we need to take a walk. You can bring your drink with you."

Fitz, taking his drink, got up as well and the two of them walked out her office with Fitz's agents tagging along. They only walked couple of office doors away from Victoria's office when she stopped and allowed one of Fitz's agents to open the door. When the two of them entered the room, Fitz saw three men wearing business suits standing in front of a large round table. One of the men was African-American, another was Asian, and the third man appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent.

After the agent closed the door, Victoria said, "Fitzgerald, may I introduce my colleagues, Samuel Pryor, Humphrey Wong, and Michael Sayyid". As Victoria made the introductions, the men shook hands and the Victoria's colleagues express their honor in meeting Fitz. After shaking hands, Victoria said, "Why don't we take a seat at the table."

Fitz noticed at the table there was already a drink at three of the seats. Each person took a seat at the table with Samuel, Humphrey, and Michael taking the seat they were sitting previously before Victoria and Fitz entered the room. After sitting down, Victoria said "Samuel, Humphrey, and Michael are the directors of the other three covert units here at the CIA."

Then each of the men went around the table to inform Fitz of their respective unit. Samuel went first, "Mr. President, I'm the director the Sigma Forces which oversees terrorist threats." He was followed by Humphrey who said "Mr. President, I'm director of the Omega Unit which oversees international threats that don't involve terrorism." Michael concluded with "Mr. President, I'm the director of the Psi Unit which oversees cyber threats."

"Fitzgerald, as part of the cleaning house process is the covert units now have a Greek alphabet designation rather than alpha-numeric title like B6-13. The directors of the covert units are termed as the "overseers" since we oversee a network of agents that are engaged in covert activities. In case you are wondering, the activities B6-13 had been engaged in are now divided up amongst the remaining four units," said Victoria.

She then continued on, "We believe Rowan has something planned and we suspect it may have something to with upcoming presidential election. However, Rowan has been maintaining a low profile so we have been hampered in our intelligence activities but we are trying. At worst, we will be at an impasse on obtaining information about Rowan but at some point, he will do something that will be a tip-off."

Then Samuel said "Mr. President, whatever Rowan ultimately has planned will be a threat to our country. With that said, you will need to act…

* * *

 _Present Time_

 _CIA Building, Langley, Virginia_

The "overseers" of the CIA covert operations received a phone call from CIA Director Marsha Lowry telling them they needed to meet with her in her private conference room. Although it was after standard work hours, the overseers's work hours often went after the standard work hours and they were still in their offices when they got the call from Marsha.

When the four of them arrived in private conference room, they saw Marsha with the FBI Director, John Greeley. Marsha then instructed all of them to take a seat at the conference table and then closed the door behind them.

Marsha said "FBI Director Greeley just received information from the Dallas field office that would be of interest to us."

"I received a phone call from the head of the Dallas field office informing me Leo Bergen has been abducted. From their preliminary investigation with the local law enforcement, Leo was taking a car service that was supposed to drive him to the airport to fly back to DC. He just finished his campaign consultant job in Dallas and was headed home. Dallas police was contacted when the real car service that was supposed to pick him up arrived and the FBI was notified when there was no record of Leo checking in at the airport. I am bringing this to the CIA attention since the CIA has been monitoring the status of top level political campaign experts for the past couple of days. Also, Leo Bergen's girlfriend is Abigail Whelan, White House Chief of Staff. The FBI hasn't been able to make contact with Ms. Whelan to let her know what has happened which suggests that this may not be a typical kidnapping/abduction situation."

"That may be true," responded Marsha. "What we are about to share with you stays in this room, John."

The FBI Director nodded his head to acknowledge Marsha's comment.

"What we may be dealing with is a former CIA agent who has gone rogue," said Marsha succinctly. To the overseers, describing Rowan having gone rogue would be a mild understatement but the explanation would allow the CIA to have control over the matter.

"Understood, Marsha. I'll have the Dallas office transfer the case to you," said the FBI Director. He then got up from his seat and left the conference room so the CIA group could talk privately.

"Are we working on the presumption that Rowan took Leo?" asked Steven.

Marsha replied "It's the most likely scenario if Abigail has been evading the FBI."

"Rowan could have had someone watching and monitoring Leo in Dallas and unfortunately for Leo, he was finishing his job in Dallas and Rowan used the situation to his advantage," said Samuel.

"Which mean Leo Bergen will be taking over for Olivia Pope as the Grant-Ballard campaign manager," commented Michael.

"Probably," said Marsha.

"We still need to get Rowan out in the open so we can stop him," said Humphrey. "He has been brilliant in keeping a low profile throughout the election process and letting his daughter take center stage."

"That's probably been deliberate," responded Victoria. "If there is going to be any charging of criminal wrongdoing, Olivia will take the fall not him. However, with Olivia not being able to be campaign manager and Rowan needing to rely on a "replacement" one, he may have to be more visible in the campaign since he will need to be overseeing things more closely. With his daughter, he was able to anticipate her actions and manipulate her. He will be less likely to do so with a pinch hitter."

"Nonetheless, taking Leo Bergen to be a replacement campaign manager is probably part of a bigger plan Rowan has in place," remarked Samuel.

"Yeah, it is," said Victoria. Then Victoria's cell phone rang and when she saw the caller ID, she knew it was Fitz using a code name as an extra measure of security and confidentiality. She excused herself and immediately stepped out of the room to answer the call.

"Fitzgerald," she answered in a low voice.

"Victoria, Rowan has taken Olivia from her hospital room. He wants to meet with me here in Boulder.".


	8. Meetings with a Devil and an Angel

When Victoria reported back to her colleagues that Olivia had been taken by her father, they knew Rowan was laying the foundation of the "big plan" he had in place regarding the presidential election. Marsha assigned her and the Alpha Response unit to take the lead in the "mission" with the other covert units working alongside to finally take down Rowan.

After Marsha issued her directives to Victoria and her colleagues, Victoria called Fitz back to let him know what was happening and to give him instructions. "Fitzgerald, Leo Bergen has also been taken. Rowan is probably involved with it."

"Dammit, what does the bastard want? Victoria, you need to…"

"The Alpha Response unit and the other covert units are working on this. I'm taking lead since this is a domestic threat. You'll need to meet with Rowan to find out what he wants. I'm flying out to Boulder. As soon I land in Boulder, Marsha will coordinate with Secret Service to have your agents bring you to a secure location so we can meet."

"The agents, can they be trusted?"

"Yes. All of them, including Mellie's plus Karen's and Teddy's have been checked. They will receive instructions not to interfere unless they are told to do so or will only take action if any of your lives are in immediate threat. Fitzgerald, I know I'm asking a lot out of you considering the circumstances but you need trust my colleagues and me so we can stop Rowan once and for all."

"I trust you."

"Good. I'll see you in a few hours, cousin," said Victoria before hanging up.

* * *

 _Boulder, Colorado_

After getting the initial phone call from Rowan and calling Victoria to let her know Rowan had taken Olivia from her hospital room, Fitz had been in a waiting game for Rowan's phone call for them to meet. He didn't know if Rowan was somewhere in Boulder or was on his way to Boulder but the fact he had to wait for Rowan to get in contact with him was Rowan's way showing he was calling the shots with the situation.

When they did finally meet in what Fitz suspected to a former B6-13 safe house in the Boulder area, he tried to hold his ground in the meeting by directing the focus of the meeting by asking "What do you want, Rowan and where is Olivia?" without any pleasantries or niceties. However, Rowan blew him off by responding "All in good time, Mr. President."

Rowan knew what to say to push his buttons. "Mr. President, I'm wondering whether your love for my daughter remains unconditional after she made the decision to abort your child. It is enough for you to want her back? Granted, we now know Olivia was suffering from a brain tumor but her decision could have come before the brain tumor."

Fitz chose to remain silent when Rowan made his comment. Rowan's taunt was to show the power he had - Rowan knew about the abortion and he had the ability to hurt him when he stated Olivia's decision in such a stark cruel manner and also her decision to have the abortion could have been conscious and intentional and not caused by the tumor.

Rowan then said "Also, would your love for Olivia be unconditional regardless of her medical condition?"

An alarm sounded in his head when Fitz heard that comment. "Rowan, what you have done to Olivia?"

"Doing what is best for Olivia, Mr. President." Rowan then said "If you want Olivia back, you will do the following. Two days from now, your former wife will be having a campaign rally in Santa Barbara, California, your hometown. I want you to be at the rally to deliver a speech giving your full endorsement to Senator Grant for her to become the next President…"

* * *

A few hours later, Fitz met with Victoria in a secure location. Without wasting any time, Fitz told Victoria what Rowan wanted. "Rowan wants me to go to Santa Barbara to campaign for Mellie. He already has a drafted speech for me to deliver in support of Mellie becoming president," said Fitz. "He has Susan, Abby, Liz, and David coming to Santa Barbara as well. Essentially, Mellie will be getting full White House court at the rally. After the rally, Rowan will give me instructions on getting Olivia back. When I asked about Leo Bergen he ignored me. I think Rowan will be using Leo as Olivia's replacement as Mellie's campaign manager."

"My team believe that's Rowan's intention," said Victoria. "I know as much you and your White House team don't want to be making the trip to Santa Barbara but all of you need to. My colleagues and I already have a plan in place to take down Rowan but in order for it to succeed, Rowan has to be given the impression he has won." Victoria paused before saying "The truth is we can't undo the Republican presidential ticket. The only thing we have control over is removing Rowan's influence over the election process. Once Rowan is removed, the election will be the Grant-Ballard ticket versus the Vargas-Beene ticket and the American citizens casting their votes on Election Day, and the Electoral College, hopefully, casting their votes in accordance to the popular vote. Now, there could be the situation of where one candidate wins the popular vote and the other wins the Electoral College vote which may be a residual effect of Rowan's doing, but in that case, that will be resolved through a legal mechanism."

Fitz knew Victoria was right about the situation. While he wanted and preferred Susan to be the Republican Party presidential candidate, he couldn't make that happen, at least not with this presidential election. There was the possibility four years later assuming Susan still wanted to be involved with politics after she finished her term as Vice President. It was a situation where they couldn't undo the entire wrong. Fitz hoped whatever Victoria and her colleagues had planned for Rowan would be in proportion to all the destruction and harm he had caused.

"Fitzgerald, there is something I need to prepare you for. The profilers on my team have reason to believe that Rowan might do something to Olivia as he is holding her."

"She's his daughter. Why would he want to harm her?" asked Fitz with an alarmed voice.

"Rowan wouldn't think what he was doing as harming her but rather helping her or protecting her. Rowan looks at Olivia as his creation. His legacy. As we told you before, all that matters to Rowan is power. Olivia as his creation and legacy would embrace power the same way he has. Before the brain tumor, Olivia fought against her father and even challenged his power, however, the brain tumor triggered a situation where she wanted power the same way Rowan wants it, especially when Olivia willingly accepted the situation of Rowan orchestrating the Republican Party ticket, Rowan thought Olivia finally became the daughter he had raised her to be.…"

When Fitz heard Victoria's comment, he understood what Mellie said to him about Olivia's distress in how she had become "Rowan's daughter". Everything Olivia fought against to be she ended up becoming when she got sick. Rowan, rather than be concerned something might have been wrong with Olivia given her personality change, he readily accepted the change and used it for his gain.

"Now Rowan knows it was an illness that made Olivia changed who she was, he may regard the Olivia he has now as his daughter no longer capable to his successor. In his mind, the daughter he had before the brain tumor had the potential to be groomed to be his successor once she stopped fighting and challenging him. However, the removal of tumor may result in psychological and emotional changes where Olivia may not be the same Olivia before her illness. If the Olivia who is now in recovery is feeling regret and remorse for things she did when she had the tumor, she is less likely to fall prey to the situation of coveting power. In his mind, Olivia no longer wanting power is a form of weakness. Rather than allow Olivia to be weak, he will do something to "protect" her from it."

"What do your profilers think Rowan might do?" he asked. He didn't want to think Rowan would actually murder his own daughter in order to protect her from her own humanity. It would be too sick in Fitz's mind especially for him who had gone through the loss of a child.

Victoria sensed what Fitz was thinking and responded back with "Whatever Rowan would do he would interpret as an act of mercy, sort of the situation where someone decides to put a beloved sick pet to sleep because he or she doesn't want the pet to suffer anymore…"

Fitz was trying to reconcile the entire situation. In his mind, it didn't make sense for Rowan to return Olivia to him if he was going to kill Olivia. Unless, it wasn't Rowan's intention to return Olivia and her abduction was Rowan's way of using him to campaign for Mellie. The other possible scenario was Rowan doing something that could cause harm to Olivia but Rowan wouldn't interpret it as being harmful to Olivia because he was "protecting" Olivia. On some level, Fitz genuinely believed Rowan would return Olivia to him so long he made his appearance at Mellie's campaign rally. However, he was holding out against all hope Rowan wouldn't do anything to hurt Olivia but he knew it was a situation where he had no real reason to be optimistic about given who he was dealing with. All he could do was what Rowan "wanted" him to do so he could get Olivia back as quickly as possible so he could take care of her and to make sure no further harm came to her.


	9. Team White House Prepares

**Author's Note:**

 **This installment touches on the issue of racism and makes some reference to sexism. While I can't claim to be a woman of color per se because of my skin tone but I'm someone of a racial background whose race had endured racism on a historical level and I experienced racist taunts and slurs when growing up. I also have experienced situations of sexism in the work place when dealing with senior male colleagues.**

 **For this fanfic, I did my own spin on the Lazarus One storyline so it may not follow canon.**

* * *

As Fitz was sitting in the unmarked SUV that was driving him back to the hotel after his meeting with Victoria, his hands balled into fists to reflect the anger and frustration he was feeling. Fitz thought if Rowan was going to try something, it would have been closer to the Election Day and it would have involved him doing something that would help Mellie to secure the Oval through voting fraud, perhaps a repeat of Defiance and the Cytron card. However, he had been warned by Victoria and her colleagues that if Rowan was going to do something, it would be big so to let everyone know he was in charge or in control of the situation. This was part of Rowan's modus operandi…

 _ **Flashback**_ **-** _ **1**_ _ **st**_ _ **Meeting with Victoria and the "Overseers" at the CIA**_

" **Mr. President, what you need to know was B6-13 was never meant to be a big operation among the covert units given what B6-13 was charged to do, which were jobs, the really ugly ones, such as giving an order to a Navy pilot to shoot down a plane filled with over 300 passengers. If an intelligence agency allowed for a covert unit that does the ugly jobs to be its most dominant covert unit, then there is a problem, if you get what I'm saying," said Samuel.**

" **I do," replied Fitz somberly. He knew the reference Samuel was making was about him and Operation Remington. According to Samuel, the activities that B6-13 were engaged in should only be done if there was no recourse or no alternative available and which meant they would only be used occasionally if things were been done right.**

 **Humphrey then added "Mr. President, the four of us started as agents after Rowan did, so we know his story and in many ways, we understand his situation. The CIA hasn't been known for its diversity and we know the CIA specifically recruited us to be agents because of what we are in regards to sex, race, or ethnic background because they needed agents to do a particular job because of it. It isn't just a question of working harder but it also finding ways to have longevity in the agency when your assignment has ended while dealing with the institutional sexism, racism, or prejudice that exists."**

" **How one deals with it depends upon individual nature. For Rowan, it has been a chip on his shoulder and perhaps at this point, it has become pathological from what we have seen of his behavior and what he has done," said Michael.**

 **Samuel continued on with the story, "When the head position of B6-13 became available, no one wanted the job except for Rowan. There is no glory or honor in being the head of B6-13 because it involved doing the dirty jobs, the kind of jobs that would keep a sane person awake at night. But Rowan took the job so he could prove that he could be a head of a unit in spite of his background. As you can surmise, Mr. President, Rowan was the only person of color among the other heads of the covert units and he had to show he was better than them, and he did do it by making B6-13 the big time operation it ultimately became. By the time the other heads came to the realization that Rowan was out of control, they couldn't stop him. Issues of racism prevented the other heads from admitting to then CIA Directors that they had an out of control situation, that is, a man of color figured out some way to "outsmart and outpower" a group of white men. Rowan's ability to make**

 **B6-13 the big time covert operation which no one was able to stop him helped to feed his arrogance about the longevity of B6-13 and had plan in place called Lazarus One which would allow B6-13 to "resurrect" itself should it be taken down."**

" **However, as a last ditch effort to turn the situation around so they could keep their jobs, our predecessors did attempt a takedown effort using Lazarus One as its cover while Rowan was in prison which ultimately failed. It was a hack job that was poorly executed using Rowan's former agents. Rowan managed to use it to his advantage by telling Olivia his life was in danger and he needed to be release from prison to prevent any harm coming to him. You unwittingly got entangled in the mess by sending Jake Ballard after Rowan after he was released from prison," said Michael.**

 **Victoria drove the point home with "Rowan has been bidding his time in trying to establish his power and control since his release from prison. What you always have to remember is whatever Rowan does is to show he has power. Such as the way he pushes people's buttons or how he shuts things down with a threat or by committing murder. The bolder the gesture, the more he shows he has that power…"**

Fitz should have learned that lesson a long time ago when Rowan planned Jerry's murder as a message to him that Olivia would not be his, and he was powerless to stop Rowan even if he was POTUS and the most powerful man in the world. Once again, Rowan proved his upper hand with what he orchestrated - Mellie and Jake were probably going to take the state of California on Election Day. With him and Susan and their respective Chiefs of Staff appearing in Santa Barbara, Mellie was getting full White House support for her bid for the presidency. By providing Mellie with full White House support, this would imply that the torch should pass onto Mellie to becoming the next POTUS.

California's 55 Electoral College votes made up the 20 percent of the minimal 270 Electoral College votes a presidential candidate needed to win office. According to election analysts' predictions, if the Grant-Ballard ticket were to win California, they would win the election. The two other states with the largest Electoral College votes were Texas with its 38 and Florida with 29 were also predicted to go to Mellie and Jake. Although the two states had large Hispanic/Latino populations, the Vargas-Beene campaign seemed to be faltering in those two states. Whether the Vargas-Beene campaigns were faltering due to Rowan's behind the scene manipulation was a distinct possibility. In the case of California, an appearance by the White House at Mellie's campaign rally would overshadow concurrent Vargas-Beene campaign activities in the state. No doubt, Rowan would also be engaged in some behind the scene activity to derail the Vargas-Beene campaign in California as an extra insurance measure for Mellie and Jake to win.

The combination of taking the Electoral College votes from three largest states along with the Electoral College votes of the smaller states that traditionally supported a Republican presidential ticket, Mellie and Jake would take the White House.

Shortly after Fitz returned to his hotel suite, he received a secure call from Abby at the White House. During his meeting with Rowan, Rowan informed him that Abby would be contacting him to coordinate the "last-minute" trip to Santa Barbara to campaign for Mellie. Putting together a trip like this would involve a mad scramble at the White House to get everything organized. Normally, a trip like this would take at least a few weeks to plan minimally, which included sending an advance team from White House to Santa Barbara to coordinate details. This would include Secret Service overseeing security details at the hotel where they would be staying and implementing the appropriate security measures at the campaign rally to ensure both his and Susan's safety. Instead they had less than 48 hours to pull everything together.

When he answered his cell phone, Abby put him on speaker phone so he could speak with her, as well as with Susan, Liz, and David. They were speaking through a secure channel in the Situation Room to discuss what happened and figuring out the details of their appearance in Santa Barbara. To everyone's credit, they were all focused on organizing the impromptu trip to Santa Barbara with Abby dealing with the fallout from the White House advance team for last minute decision to campaign for Mellie. It was decided that they would fly out on Susan's Vice President's plane. They would have to take the White House press corps with them since this was a campaign activity and the press corps would want and expect to cover it.

They thought it would be best to keep the number of White House staff going to Santa Barbara to a minimum since none of them knew if Rowan had another move in place that would put more people at risk.

"But, you are going to need someone from the speechwriting team to help you with your speech for Mellie's rally," said Abby.

"Rowan is getting a speech to me," said Fitz. As he was about to say something, David interrupted him with "I believe I have the speech. Rowan gave me a flash drive and said I needed to pass it on to you when I see you next."

"All right," said Fitz as he shook his head. This was so typical of Rowan's cloak and dagger behavior. "I can make the changes myself. I would prefer we kept the number of staffers coming out to an absolute minimum."

David added "I can help you with revisions if you want."

"Great. I appreciate it."

Liz countered with "We are going to need Ethan since he is Acting Press Secretary. If he doesn't come on the trip, it will arouse suspicion with the press corps."

"We do have to bring him," conceded Fitz. Fitz was fond of Ethan and wished he didn't have to come to Santa Barbara out of concerns for his safety. "But, I don't want to bring him out here blind."

"I don't think we can tell him everything," said Abby. Knowledge about the "fixed" Republican ticket was limited to the five of them at the White House, and if information about the fixed ticket became public knowledge, the very foundation of the government could be undermined.

"I agree."

Then Susan chimed in with "Why don't we tell him our appearance at Mellie's campaign rally wasn't planned and it involves a national security situation that we can't tell him."

"Fine." If Fitz could have a dollar every time "national security" was used as a reason or excuse for not disclosing something, he would be an even wealthier man.

"Since we have to bring the press corps with us, how risky or dangerous would it be for them to come?" asked Abby.

"I don't think Rowan would do something to the press corps. He has nothing to gain by doing something to them. He actually needs them to get the media coverage he would want for the the rally. But we should be keeping a close eye on the press corps during the rally, though."

"I agree," said Abby. "We need to get things rolling here in DC since we are ahead in time from Colorado. We'll call if there are any problems."

"All right. Abby, if the advance team gives you a hard time, I'll speak with them," said Fitz.

"Ok."

After Fitz ended his call with his White House "team", the door to Fitz's hotel suite opened and Dr. Paul Ellison entered the room. Since Paul had planned on caring for Olivia during the return trip from Boulder to DC but with Olivia's abduction, Paul had to be told what was happening. Fitz also knew he could trust Paul with the information he was telling him.

"Paul, sorry for holding you up from getting to bed but a situation has come up. Olivia was taken from her hospital room earlier this evening. I know who has taken her. As a condition of getting Olivia back is I, along with Susan Ross need to make an appearance at Mellie's campaign rally in Santa Barbara the day after tomorrow. I have to give a speech fully supporting Mellie's candidacy as president."

Paul managed to hide his shock with the news and focused on his attention on the situation. "Has Susan agreed to come?" He was thinking if Susan didn't come to the rally, what would be the implications of getting Olivia back.

Fitz replied "She has." Although he trusted Paul, Paul didn't need to know about full truth of the matter. It was a situation where fewer the people who knew would be better.

"What can I do to help?" As a Navy reservist with the rank of Captain and who kept up with his combat training, Paul hoped he could be of assistance. Paul then joked "Just to let you know, Fitz, I'm not asking to be drafted but I want to be able to help out if I can." Since Fitz and Paul were old friends from their Navy days, Paul addressed Fitz by his first name when they were in private.

Fitz chuckled at Paul's statement before saying "Actually, we might be able to use you to help us out."

"Do I need to be in uniform? I didn't pack it. I wasn't thinking I would need it."

"No. In fact, it would be better if you weren't…"


	10. One Parent's Hit, Another Parent's Miss

After Paul left Fitz's suite, Huck was granted entry into Fitz's suite by Fitz's agent. Even though Fitz hadn't seen Jake, he suspected Jake returned to Boulder with Rowan. He also suspected after his meeting with Rowan, Rowan and Jake went to the hotel where he and Mellie were staying to see Mellie. Since he was staying on a separate floor from Mellie, he did not know what was happening with Mellie. However, he had a small measure of comfort in knowing that Secret Service agents would intervene if Mellie's life was in danger, and Olivia's team was still providing support to Mellie. He presumed Olivia's team had been with Mellie during the meeting and Huck was coming to see him to let him know what happened.

"Rowan told Mellie not to have any contact with you between now and the Santa Barbara campaign rally but he has allowed me to be a messenger," said Huck. "He has instructed Mellie to fly to Santa Barbara tomorrow on her plane. He, Jake, and their "team" will be flying in separately but everyone will be staying at the ranch house as they go over the plans for the campaign rally. He says he has someone to replace to Olivia and Mellie will meet the person in Santa Barbara."

"I know Rowan has taken Leo so it's probably Leo who will be the new campaign manager."

"Whether it's Leo or someone else, we can't have more people dragged into Rowan's plan. Rowan actually dismissed OPA as part of Mellie's campaign team but Marcus and I convinced him to let the two of us stay on. Rowan needs Mellie right now for his plans so he won't do anything to her for the time being but anything is possible with him. Marcus and I are staying on to provide support for Mellie. She is not going to be able to handle Rowan by herself. We also have a plan in place to prevent Rowan from bring anyone else into campaign, as well as get Karen and Teddy to you so you can take them back to DC where they can be safe."

Mellie was scheduled to make additional stops in California with a trip to Alaska as the final stop of the campaign trail. If Rowan was traveling with her in the remaining part of the campaign trail, Karen and Teddy would be around Rowan. Fitz didn't want Karen and Teddy anywhere near Rowan. Also, should Karen and Teddy remain with Mellie on the campaign trail, it was possible Rowan could use them to manipulate Mellie. Karen and Teddy couldn't stay with Mellie on the campaign trail.

"Marcus and I will do everything to keep Karen and Teddy safe until you get them. We'll also do everything possible to keep Mellie safe as well," said Huck.

"Thank you, Huck." Despite Mellie's behavior towards him, she was still the mother of his children and Fitz didn't want anything bad happen to her.

After Huck left, Fitz called Abby and said, "Abby, Air Force One needs to be ready to fly out to Santa Barbara at the crack of dawn." The thought of Rowan in his former home with his children had him on a heightened state of fear and concern. He needed to fly out to Santa Barbara at first light, way before Mellie's plane was scheduled to fly out from Boulder. He didn't care if he had to sit inside Air Force One at an air force base while waiting for the hotel to finish preparing their security arrangements for his stay in Santa Barbara. He needed to be in Santa Barbara before Karen and Teddy arrived.

* * *

Later that evening, Mellie laid in bed wishing she could just fall asleep and not wake up. If she didn't wake up, it meant she was dead and being dead would allow her to have graceful exit out the mess she was in. Even though she knew Fitz had told her the truth about Rowan Pope pulling the strings of her campaign with Olivia as the "front person", she hoped Rowan would still be pulling the strings remotely rather than taking a front seat with Olivia no longer being able to be her campaign manager. However, her hope quickly extinguished when Rowan Pope, with Jake in tow, showed up at the hotel and "requesting" that she see them immediately. She knew the "request" was a demand and she didn't want to know what the consequences would be if she didn't acquiesce to the demand. After all, the man was a ruthless killer – not only did he murder her son but also arranged for a group of jurors to be executed.

After Rowan told her, Quinn, Huck, and Marcus that he would be joining the campaign trail, he asked everyone to leave the room so they could talk privately. During their private meeting, he told her of the plan to have Fitz and Susan make an appearance at the Santa Barbara campaign rally, she immediately protested. "Olivia and I agreed we wouldn't involve the White House in the campaign. I need to show my independence, as well as I'm not relying on Fitz to get me elected. I deserve to be President on my merits…"

Rowan just laughed at her and said "Your merits? What have you done? Getting elected as the Senator of Virginia? You wouldn't have achieved that hadn't been for my daughter giving advice to your ex-husband on how to spin your senatorial campaign. You were just the third wheel in the Ensign Amy Martin matter that catapulted your Senate campaign."

After he stopped laughing, Rowan said "In a way, Olivia's accident and illness worked to my advantage. Since Olivia is no longer able to continue to be your campaign manager, I can follow with my original plan for California, rather than continuing on with the school yard playground antics of undermining the opponent's campaign that we have been doing. Olivia might have been opened to the idea of using some friendly persuasion for the White House to campaign for you, as well as stopping Vargas and Cyrus in their tracks, but I don't think she would have done what I would have done to ensure full cooperation from the relevant parties. Oh, by the way, you will be getting a new campaign manager tomorrow when we are in Santa Barbara."

Mellie already knew Rowan got Fitz to go to Santa Barbara by taking Olivia. She didn't want to know what he did to get Susan to come to Santa Barbara and the thought he just plucked someone out nowhere to be her new campaign manager was truly terrifying. "Who?" she asked while trying to hide her terror.

"You will find out tomorrow but I'm sure you can venture to guess as to who it is. There aren't a lot credible possibilities for a presidential campaign manager."

The one name that came to Mellie's mind was Leo Bergen. Either Rowan was blackmailing or threatening Leo because Leo wouldn't willingly step into the role as a replacement campaign manager for a campaign that was being controlled by another person.

Rowan then said, "Senator Grant, the sooner you accept you becoming President has nothing to do with merit, the better off you will be."

"Then why did you manipulate the Republican ticket so I would get the nomination?"

"Because I knew you wanted the presidency more than anything else and would do anything to achieve it. You arranged for my release in exchange Olivia would get you elected as president. Your thirst for power supersedes everything else, Senator, including your loyalty and devotion to your deceased son. After all, that is the reason why I'm not sitting in a prison. The man who murdered your son…"

As she laid on the bed, Mellie was thinking back to those horrible months after Jerry's death and the dark abyss she had fallen into. She loved her son but Rowan was right. She wanted the Oval so badly that she allowed the man who murdered her son out of prison in order for her to get it. She also knew Fitz was right that she earned every ounce of what she had now because she wanted the Oval and to be the most powerful person in the world.

* * *

The next day when Mellie was flying with Karen and Teddy, plus Huck and Marcus to Santa Barbara, she told Karen and Teddy that she was getting new help with her campaign since Olivia wasn't able to continue on as her campaign manager and the new team would be staying with them at the ranch house. She then told them their father, along with Susan, Abby, Liz, and David would be coming to Santa Barbara to campaign for her.

"Yay!" shouted Teddy. "I get to see Daddy."

While Teddy was excited with the news of seeing Fitz in California, Karen suspected something wasn't right. She knew her father and Susan hadn't been asked by her mother or Olivia to campaign for her. From the conversations Karen overheard, not asking her father to campaign had been deliberate. Her father's decision to campaign for her mother must have been at the last minute since he hadn't mentioned it last night when they say their good nights and good byes. She also knew her father was supposed to flying home to DC with Olivia today. It didn't make sense to her why her father would be going to California to campaign for her mother since the first priority had been to get Olivia back to DC.

"What about Olivia? Wasn't she supposed to fly back to DC with Quinn and Dad on Air Force One today?" she asked.

Mellie replied "While your father is in California, Olivia will be in the hospital for a couple extra days. Her doctors said the extra stay would help her. He will pick up Olivia and Quinn on his way back to DC." She said it in a convincing tone so not to arouse suspicion. The three adults didn't want Karen to know about Olivia's abduction. In actuality, Quinn was with Fitz on Air Force One. They thought once Rowan released Olivia, she would need help and support from someone from her team.

When they arrived in Santa Barbara, they immediately went to the Grant ranch house Mellie got as part of her divorce settlement with Fitz. Even though Mellie was living in DC, the house was maintained by a housekeeping staff and a grounds keeper. They had been given advanced notice that Mellie, the children, and her campaign team were coming to stay at the ranch house while they were in town for the campaign rally. The housekeeping team and grounds keeper got the house in order for the Grant family and guests.

Although Karen grew up in the ranch house, it was the first time Teddy was seeing the house. Karen thought Teddy would enjoy the California home with the large open space and the yard for him to run in, and which he did. She showed her baby brother around the house while Jenn, Teddy's nanny got Teddy's things settled into his room. For a short while, everything was fine until Jake and the "new" campaign team arrived at the ranch house. Their presence automatically changed the mood of the house.

When Karen was told by her mother she was getting new help for her campaign, Karen hadn't thought to ask questions about it. She just presumed the Republican Party was sending people to help out. Karen had enough political DNA in her to understand how elections and campaigns work, and knew political parties would send in reinforcements to support a campaign if the campaign was in trouble or if there was a problem. However, Karen, who also survived through two presidential campaigns with her father, knew what a campaign team looked like and the people who were at the ranch house didn't give the impression about being the "typical" campaign team. If she thought Jake was creepy, the men who were there as her mother's campaign team were downright scary.

Karen didn't need any encouragement from her mother, Huck or Marcus about staying in her room while they worked on the campaign rally with the new team. Even Teddy who was normally easy going and friendly but the presence of the strangers in the house made him clingy for her or Jenn. He didn't want to go to their mother since she was surrounded by strange men.

Karen was perfectly content in her room surfing the internet or reading on her tablet until she got hungry and wanted snack from the kitchen. As she headed downstairs to the kitchen, she saw Leo Bergen being brought into the house by two men who were supporting him. When she saw the three men, she immediately ducked back into her room. The sight of a semi-conscious Leo Bergen being helped into the house frightened her. She immediately called her father on her cell phone.

"Karen, what's wrong?" answered a concerned Fitz on first ring. Fitz was sitting inside Air Force One which was at Vandenberg Air Force Base, an hour away from Santa Barbara. The hotel was still getting security measures in place for its VIP White House guests.

"Dad, there is something weird going on here at the house. I just saw Leo…" but before Karen could finish her sentence, her bedroom door opened. Mellie, Huck, Marcus, and Rowan entered her bedroom.

When Karen stopped talking, Fitz began shouting, "Karen, Karen…" and then he heard Rowan's voice over the phone saying "Senator Grant, I would recommend you telling your daughter she should end her call with her father right now or unless you want me to tell her the truth as to who I am…"


	11. Lifelines to Safety and Comfort

There was a minute of silence over the phone which Fitz felt was eternal. He didn't know if Karen was going to be forced to end the call by Mellie to prevent Rowan from telling Karen the ringleader of her mother's presidential campaign was also responsible for her older brother's death.

Fitz broke the silence by repeating Karen's name over the phone. He then heard Mellie's voice say "Fitz."

"Mellie, I swear to God, if anything happens to Karen, I will hold you personally responsible...," shouted Fitz.

"Nothing will happen. I will call you back later," said Mellie before she ended the call.

When the call ended, Fitz threw his cell phone onto the desk in his private office/study room and shouted "Damn bastard!" Since the office/room was sound proof, Quinn, Paul, and Air Force One flight crew couldn't hear him which he was grateful. He didn't need a group of people rushing into his office/study.

Fitz sank down in his chair and propped his elbows on the desk as he held his head. Although he knew the Secret Service was instructed to intervene if he, Mellie, or their children's lives were in danger as the CIA followed through with its mission to finally to get rid of Rowan, he hated the thought of his surviving children to be in the same presence with the man who murdered his first born. He hoped whatever Huck and Marcus planned to get Karen and Teddy to him would work and the sooner he got Karen and Teddy, the better.

Five minutes later, Fitz's cell phone rang and he saw it was Mellie calling him. "Mellie."

"As soon as you are settled into your hotel, Secret Service will bring Karen and Teddy to you. As a condition of getting Karen and Teddy, they need to be at tomorrow's rally," said Mellie in a terse voice. Fitz presumed Rowan was standing next to her and dictating her as to what to say.

Fitz didn't want Karen and Teddy anywhere near the rally given the potential dangers of the situation and especially when Jerry had been publicly murdered at a rally. When he didn't respond back, Mellie said "Fitz, they need to be at the rally. It's not negotiable." It was Mellie's way telling him if he wanted Karen and Teddy, he had to agree to them being at the rally. Fitz conceded with an "All right."

Before Mellie's call, Fitz had been more worried about Rowan forcing him to make the choice of either getting his children or getting Olivia back. However, he also knew Rowan could still pull a bait and switch on him concerning Olivia after the campaign rally. Mellie then ended their call.

After the call, there was knock on the door. Fitz instructed the person to come in. The head agent of his Secret Service detail came in to say "Mr. President, the hotel is secured. We can disembark."

"Excellent." As soon he got to the hotel, he would call Mellie to instruct Karen's and Teddy's agents to bring them to him.

A few hours later, Fitz was pacing anxiously in his hotel room but his anxiety was immediately relieved when his hotel room door opened and saw Karen holding Teddy's hand entering the room. Behind them were Jenn and Karen's and Teddy's Secret Service agents. As soon Karen and Teddy were inside the suite, Teddy let go his sister's hand and immediately ran up to Fitz. As soon as Fitz picked him up to hold him, Teddy wrapped his arms around Fitz's neck and said "Bad scary men with Mommy, Daddy. I don't want to stay with Mommy."

"It's ok, Teddy. You are safe here with me," said Fitz soothingly. Fitz then said to Jenn "I'll keep Teddy with me. One of the agents will take you to your room. Thank you."

"Your welcome, Mr. President." Jenn and agents left Karen and Teddy alone with their father. However, the door remained open after they left because a hotel porter was entering into the room pushing a luggage cart that was carrying Karen's and Teddy's luggage. Fitz asked the porter to set the luggage in the sitting area and they would bring them into the right rooms. After porter set down the luggage, he left and the agent guarding Fitz's room closed the door.

Fitz while holding Teddy walked over to the sofa in the sitting area to sit down with Karen sitting next to them. Fitz shifted Teddy so he could hold him and wrapped his free arm around Karen. Karen then wrapped her arm around her brother as she held onto her father and cried.

Karen had a lot of questions but she knew she needed to wait until she and her father were alone. There were things that Teddy was too young to know or to understand.

In a little while, Teddy fell asleep and Fitz carried him to Teddy's room. As part of the room arrangement for Fitz, his suite had three bedrooms so Karen and Teddy could stay with him. He didn't want to be separated from his children after all that had happened. After Fitz settled Teddy into the bed, he returned to sitting area of suite where Karen was still sitting on the sofa. He sat down next to Karen and asked "Are you ok, sweetheart?"

"I'm ok, Dad but both Teddy and I were scared when we were at the ranch house. Dad, whose the man helping Mom with her campaign?"

Karen asked the question Fitz didn't know how he should answer. Mellie was still Karen and Teddy's mother and he didn't want them to know their mother was in "alliance" with the man who murdered their eldest brother. "The man's name is Rowan. Rowan Pope."

"Pope? Is he related to Olivia?"

"Yeah. He is her father."

"Olivia never mentioned about having a father who was a campaign expert."

"Olivia doesn't talk much about her father. They are not very close." Fitz didn't want to tell Karen about Rowan's true background as the head of one of CIA's covert groups and how he deliberately arranged for Mellie and Jake to be the Republican Party presidential ticket candidates. "Rowan can be a scary person to deal with. What happened at the ranch house when we were on the phone?"

"Mom, Huck, Marcus, and Rowan all came into my room when we were on the phone. Mom immediately took my cell phone when Rowan told her to tell me to end my call with you. After she got off the phone with you, she kept my phone and the four of them left my room. I guess it must have been five minutes or so when Mom came back to my room alone. She handed my phone back to me and told me to pack my suitcase because the agents were going to take Teddy and me to you. She also told me that Teddy and I needed to be at tomorrow's rally and I needed to wear a nice dress that wasn't too short for it."

Karen paused before saying "I asked her why Leo was here and why he looked semi-conscious and was being helped into the house. She told me Leo was asked to help out with the campaign and the reason why he looked the way he did was because he was sick and needed help."

Fitz sat in silence as he listened to Karen's recount what happened at the ranch house. He knew Mellie hid the truth from Karen as to what happened to Leo and how dangerous the situation was in general. Nonetheless, Karen had been troubled with what she saw and both Karen and Teddy had been frightened by the presence of Rowan and his team. "I'm sorry you saw something that was disturbing and both you and Teddy were scared while you with your mother at the ranch house."

"Mom said Teddy and I are going back to DC with you after the rally."

"Yeah," said Fitz. When Karen heard her father's affirmation, she broke into a happy smile which made Fitz happy.

Karen then asked "Are going back to Boulder to get Olivia before we fly back to DC?"

Before Fitz could answer Karen's question, the door to hotel suite opened and a Secret Service agent came in to say "Mr. President, Vice President Ross, Ms. Whelan, Mr. Rosen, and Ms. North are here."

"Let them in. Thank you," said Fitz. "Karen, I need to meet…"

"It's ok, Dad. I'll go to my room and we can talk after your meeting."

"Thanks sweetheart. You're probably hungry. Order some room service while I have my meeting."

"Do you want something, Dad?"

"No, I'm good. I'll get something when Teddy wakes up from his nap. He'll probably be hungry by then."

"Ok," said Karen before giving her father hug and leaving the sitting area to head to her room.

After Karen left, Fitz stood up as Team White House came into the suite. Fitz greeted everyone and gestured for everyone to take a seat in the sitting area. "Does anyone want some coffee or something to drink or eat?" Fitz asked. "Karen is about to order some room service." Everyone declined Fitz's offer with the general reply they had plenty of coffee on the plane trip to Santa Barbara.

Since Fitz knew Karen was in a room close by, he spoke in a low voice. "Game plan for tomorrow. After I give my speech and do the expected photo op, Ethan will get the press corps back on the bus and they will immediately head towards Vanderberg. They'll fly back on Susan's plane. David, I want you to fly back on Susan's plane to help Ethan handle the press corps.

"No problem. Speaking of your speech, I took the liberty of revising what Rowan gave us. Bombastic pomposity isn't your speech style. If you are going out to support Mellie, you should at least be disingenuous in your own voice," commented David also in a low voice.

David's comment made everyone chuckled slightly. The light laughter was a minor stress alleviator. When the laughter ended, the door to the suite opened and the Secret Service agent came in and handed a note to Fitz. When Fitz read the note, he nodded his head to let the agent know he acknowledged the message. As the agent was leaving the room, Fitz said to Abby in a whisper "We need to step outside." Both Fitz and Abby got up and left the room leaving David, Susan, and Liz sitting in the sitting area.

In the hallway, they saw Quinn standing and waiting for them. "I'm sorry to interrupt but I just got a call from Huck. He said Rowan is letting Leo go but only Abby and I can go get him. No Secret Service agents."

Fitz didn't like the idea of Abby going with Quinn to get Leo without any Secret Service agents to accompany them. Even though it was Huck who was making the call, Fitz didn't trust Rowan and was concerned it was a ruse for Abby or both Abby and Quinn to be taken by Rowan.

Quinn then added "Huck said he would be there along with someone from Rowan's team when we get Leo."

When Fitz heard Huck would be there during the pick-up, his concerns were allayed and Abby and Quinn getting Leo was legit.

"Ok," said Abby. "I'll arrange for us to get a car rental. Are we picking Leo up from the ranch house?"

"No. Huck said he'll give me an address for us to meet him."

After picking up the car rental, Abby and Quinn programmed the address of the rendezvous point Huck gave Abby into the car's GPS and started on their trip. The GPS directions led them to a 7-Eleven convenience store. They saw a parked car in the parking lot with the license plate Huck gave Abby. Quinn, who was driving, pulled the rental car up next to the park car and Abby got out the car. As Abby got out the rental car, Huck got out of the parked car from the passenger side and opened the door to the back seat. Leo, looking battered and bruised, got out of the car.

When Abby saw Leo she immediately approached him and touched his face and exclaimed "Oh my God, Leo. Did Rowan or his men do this to you?"

Leo remained silent as Huck pulled out Leo's bags from the trunk. After pulling out the bags, Huck answered Abby's question with "I did." As he gestured his head toward the driver seat, he said "I'm sorry but it had to be done," letting Abby know he couldn't go into details as to why he beated up Leo. Huck then said "We need to get back. Rowan is waiting for us," before getting back into the passenger seat and telling the driver to drive off.

After Huck and the mystery driver drove off the parking lot, Leo put his bags in the trunk of the rental car and both he and Abby got into the back seat. Once they were settled into the back seat, Quinn started the car and headed out of the parking lot to start the drive back to the hotel.

"It's ok. It looks worse than it is, Abby," said Leo trying to reassure Abby. "I'm so happy to see you. The people who took me said they were going to kill you if I didn't go with them."

"They lied to you so to get you to go with them," said Abby. "What did happen to you in Dallas?"

"I finished my election campaign consulting gig early and wanted to surprise you so I didn't tell you I was flying home to DC. I called for a car service to take me to the airport. The car service came early but I didn't think anything of it. As the driver was driving me to the airport, he said there was something was wrong with the car and pulled the car over. He said couldn't finish the trip and was calling the dispatcher to send another car to take me the airport. When the other car arrived, I got into it with my suitcase and thought the driver was going to take me to the airport. When the driver was taking a different route, I asked him where we were going, he didn't answer and continued on driving. I told the driver to stop but he kept on driving. I couldn't open the doors to jump out. The driver kept on driving until we got to some abandoned warehouse. There were two men standing outside. The driver told me to get out and when I got out, two men each had a gun pointed at me and told me to enter the warehouse. When I got inside the warehouse, someone covered my mouth with a handkerchief or a piece of cloth. Next thing I knew, I was sitting in some chair tied up and gagged. While I was tied up and gagged, I remember someone sticking a needle in me and after that, I was awoken up by some man. When I asked where I was, he told me I was in Santa Barbara at Senator Mellie Grant's ranch house and the guy disappeared afterwards."

Leo took a breath before continuing on with his story. "While I was being held in a room, Huck managed to sneak in to tell me that he and Marcus had a plan to get me out of the house but he didn't have time to tell me but I needed to go along with what they were doing. Later on, I was taken to another room where Huck, Marcus, Mellie and some guy name Rowan were already there. Huck and Marcus told Rowan that they didn't need the country's second best campaign manager overseeing Mellie's campaign. It was an insult to them since they were team members of the number one campaign manager. They learned and trained from number one so why should they take orders from the second best. They called me an "overrated wimpy ass hot air jerk" in front of Mellie, Rowan and me. They then "vented" their frustration of being insulted by picking a fight with me. While I was in the tussle with them, Huck whispered to me just to take it. After letting Huck get couple of hard punches in, I pretended to get knocked out. Then the four of them left the room and couple of guys came in to pick me up off the floor and took me back to the room where I was before. After some time passed, Huck and another guy came in to room told me to get up and to leave the room. They took me outside and told me to get into the back seat of a car. Huck got into the passenger seat while the other guy took the driver seat. When the driver started the car, I asked them where they were taking me, Huck said he was taking me to meeting spot where you and Quinn were coming to get me. I didn't believe him until I saw the two of you."

Leo looked at Abby directly in the eye and asked "What's going on, Abby? Why was I kidnapped and taken to Santa Barbara?"

"You heard what happened to Olivia in Boulder from the news?"

"Yeah. What does Olivia having her accident do with me?"

"You got taken to be Olivia's replacement."

"What?! Is Mellie crazy? If Mellie needed a replacement campaign manager, all she needed to do was to call and ask me."

"Mellie isn't responsible for taking you. It was Olivia's father."

"Olivia's father is involved with Mellie's campaign?" Leo asked incredulously. "Why would he resort to taking me to be Mellie's replacement campaign manager?"

Abby looked at Quinn and Quinn looked back at Abby through the rear view mirror. Their eyes exchanged a knowing glance that Leo needed to be told the truth since he has gotten dragged into the situation through Rowan's actions.

Abby looked at Leo and said "Leo, what I'm about to tell you has to be a sworn secret. You cannot tell anyone. If you do, the consequences will be dire in terms of what happens with the country and the government. Promise me you won't talk."

Leo realized what Abby what about to tell him was incredibly serious and possibly dangerous. "I promise."

Abby then proceeded to tell Leo about the fixed Republican Party presidential ticket and how Rowan was involved with it and Olivia knew about it. She also told Leo about the aftermath of Olivia's accident and Rowan needing a replacement campaign manager to take over for Olivia and the campaign manager had to be someone who he could control by threat or blackmail.

Leo listened to Abby in incredulous silence. He couldn't believe about the fixed presidential ticket. As he was listening, he was still trying to put the pieces together, such as why was Abby and Quinn in Santa Barbara. When Abby was done talking, Leo said "All right, I know why I'm in Santa Barbara. Why are you and Quinn here?"

"Rowan blackmailed or threatened the White House to come to Santa Barbara to campaign for Mellie at tomorrow's rally. The original plan was Olivia was supposed fly back to DC with Fitz on Air Force One. Quinn was going back with Olivia while Huck and Marcus would stay on with the campaign to help Mellie. We figured Rowan would be taking over the campaign with Olivia not being able to continue on but we hadn't expected him to be so underhanded. He arranged for Olivia to be taken from her hospital room in Boulder and told Fitz he would get her back after the rally. He showed me a video feed of you tied up and gagged and told me if I didn't come something would happen to you and you would be returned safely after the rally. He blackmailed Susan and Liz while David was threatened."

As Abby described Rowan's actions to get the White House to come to support Mellie at the rally, Leo realized how dangerous the situation he had been in and Huck and Marcus probably saved him. He definitely was going to be lot nicer to Olivia Pope's team assuming Huck and Marcus got out of the situation as well. "Is there some kind of rescue plan in mind for Huck and Marcus?"

"Sort of but I'm not privileged to know."

"You are White House Chief of Staff. How can you not know?"

"What's happening involves the highest level of national security and intelligence. The only person who knows is the President."

"Ok," said Leo in a conceded voice. "So what happens tomorrow?"

"The White House will be at the rally with Fitz giving a speech to support Mellie as the next President. I'm going to arrange for you and Quinn to head over to Vanderberg Air Force Base and to board Air Force One while we are at the rally. The two of you will be safer there than at the rally."

Under normal circumstances, Leo would have made a gleeful remark or comment about flying on Air Force One but this wasn't a normal situation. In a million years, he never thought the world's most luxurious airplane would become a lifeline to safety for him.


	12. Lands of Losing and Finding Vermont

**Author's Note:**

 **Warning – Graphic violence depicted.**

 **Some artistic license may have been taken on security measures taken during a public rally.**

* * *

 _Olivia is standing outside on the White House lawn being held by Rowan's men. She is struggling to break free but she can't._

 _There are dead bodies strewn all over the White House lawn. Among the dead are Abby, Susan, David, and Liz._

 _She sees Fitz standing in front of the White House. Mellie and Jake are standing on the lawn about 3 feet away from Fitz. Both of them are holding Winchester rifles getting ready to shoot Fitz. Standing next to Mellie and Jake is Rowan giving them encouragement to shoot Fitz. "Our last obstacle to the Oval, Madam President, Mr. Vice President. Eliminate him."_

" _I'm not going to let you take over the White House," a determined Fitz shouts to Mellie, Jake, and Rowan._

 _Olivia is crying and screaming "Mellie, Jake, don't do it!"_

 _Mellie responds "I have to, Olivia. You know we have to be free of him. All he has done is to hold us back."_

" _That's not true, Mellie. It's the choices you made. Stop blaming Fitz!" Olivia yells at Mellie._

" _I need to get rid of him so we can stand in the sun, Olivia," says Jake in a possessive voice._

" _I will never stand in the sun with you, Jake Ballard!" Olivia shouts to Jake._

" _Mr. President, you are not going to be able to stop us," says Rowan. "Any last words before we eliminate you?"_

 _Fitz glances to Olivia and says "I love you, Livie." As soon Fitz makes his final declaration, Mellie and Jake fire their rifles. Olivia is crying and screaming as she sees the bullets fly into Fitz's body and blood is coming out of the wounds. Fitz then falls to the ground bleeding and lifeless._

 _Mellie and Jake stop firing and set down the rifles on the ground. The two of them along with Rowan walk towards the White House and step on Fitz's dead body as they gain entrance into the White House. The men who are holding Olivia let her go and they follow Mellie, Jake, and Rowan._

 _Olivia runs to Fitz's body, drops to her knees, and holds him. She is crying hysterically and cries out "Fitz! Fitz! Please don't leave me!"_

 _As Olivia is holding Fitz's body, her mind is replaying "There is no us. There is no Vermont," from their breakup fight. She drops her head to lean it against Fitz's and says "I'm so sorry. Please come back to me," in a lost voice._

* * *

Paul Ellison was surveying Mellie's campaign rally as it was coming to a close. As part of his role in helping Fitz and the White House with the situation they were in, Paul was under guise as a rally "volunteer" and standing close by to Ethan and the White House press corps who were covering the rally. Since the White House press corps had never seen him, Paul was able to pose a rally volunteer who was helping Ethan and the White House press corps. His primary job was helping Ethan keep an eye on the press corps to make sure nothing happened to them as well as help Ethan after the rally to get the press corps back on the shuttle bus that would take them to Vanderberg Air Force base so they could board Susan's Vice President plane to head back to DC.

Although he had his assigned task, Paul's military training also put him in the position of being a keen observer of what was happening at the rally. One of the things that caught his eye, and perhaps it was because of his medical training, was an ambulance that was parked around the first aid station at the rally. Since the rally was being held at a public park which was closed off to the public once the rally started, as a safety measure was having a handful of ambulances inside the park before the close off so that if there was a medical emergency that required someone to have transport to a hospital, there was already a handful of ambulances onsite rather than having to wait for the ambulances to be cleared through security checkpoints to allow them in.

From his knowledge, while paramedics/emergency medical technicians didn't have to sit inside the ambulance during the rally but they weren't allowed to leave their ambulance unattended either. Paul noticed no paramedics/emergency medical technicians milling around that particular ambulance for the past 15 minutes. He also knew from his military training that an ambulance would be perfect hiding place for a bomb since no one would suspect it. It was possible whoever drove the ambulance in was able to get the ambulance through the check points and parked the ambulance by the first aid station. If a bomb was to go off at the first aid station, it would be devastating since the first responders would have been taken out.

Yet, there was another part of him had him thinking there was something else going with the abandoned ambulance. The rally was almost over and if there was a bomb, it would have made the most impact while the rally was going on rather than have it go off at the end of the rally if the targeted location was the first aid station. Regardless, it was something that needed to be checked out.

Since there was concern about safety and welfare of the press corps during the rally and being able to call for help quickly should something happen, he had been wired with a hidden microphone that would connect him with Secret Service. He stepped away from the White House press corps seating area so he could speak with Secret Service discreetly in the microphone.

As Paul was making contact with Secret Service about the abandoned ambulance, members of the platform party, which included Fitz, Mellie, Jake, Karen, Teddy, Susan, Abby, and Liz and VIP members of the local Santa Barbara Republican Party were being directed off the platform into the back staging area. David, Huck, and Marcus had been waiting in the staging area during the rally as observers. They noted Rowan's presence in the staging area earlier but didn't see him now.

Once the platform party was in the back staging area, the VIP members of the Santa Barbara Republican Party huddled around Fitz and Susan to express their thanks for their impromptu attendance at the rally. While the Fitz and Susan were huddling with the local politicos, Karen and Teddy were taken to Fitz's car by their agents. Both Abby and Liz kept watch on the time spent so that Fitz and Susan weren't completely bogged down with the local party VIPs. After allowing 5 minutes to pass, Abby and Liz "pulled" Fitz and Susan away, respectively. Liz directed Susan with David following behind them plus Susan's agents to the compact limousine that would be driving them to Vanderberg.

The local VIPs left after they said their good byes to Mellie and Jake and letting them know they would see them later tonight at a special dinner they were having for the two them. When Huck and Marcus were leading Mellie away to their car to head back to the ranch house, Jake stayed behind. Abby's cell phone then rang and she stepped away from Fitz to answer the call leaving Jake and Fitz alone.

"You're not getting her back, Fitz," said Jake to taunt Fitz.

When Fitz heard Jake's taunt, it confirmed his worst fear that Rowan pulled a bait and switch on him. Anger and rage coursed through Fitz as he fought the urge to grab Jake by his blazer lapels. The two of them were surrounded by their respective Secret Service agents and the agents would intervene if the two of them started a fight.

"Where the hell is she?" Fitz asked in a loud angry voice.

As Abby was listening to the call, she was also watching what was happening between Fitz and Jake and she had to stop it. Since the two of them spoke loudly, she knew what the subject matter of the conversation was. She quickly ended her call so she could stop the situation from the escalating.

Abby walked over to where Fitz and Jake were standing and facing each other. She said in a determined voice "We need to go, Fitz. We'll find Olivia on our own." She then directed Fitz away from Jake with Fitz's agents surrounding them. As they were walking to the car, Abby said in a very low voice to Fitz "We have Olivia."

"What?!" said Fitz in amazement.

"Olivia has been here at the rally all this time. She has been kept hidden inside an ambulance by the first aid station. Paul noticed an abandoned ambulance and alerted Secret Service. Secret Service evacuated the area so they could investigate in case it was a bomb. When they opened it up, they found Olivia lying unconscious on a stretcher hooked up to medical monitors. They quickly radioed Paul to come over to check on her."

"I need to go see her," said Fitz but as he tried to change the direction of where he was walking, his head agent stopped him. "Mr. President, we need to get you to the car. We can't have you out in the open."

"Go to the car," instructed Abby. "I'll head over to the ambulance to find out what's happening with Olivia. I'll call you to let you know what is happening."

Fitz climbed into his limousine where Karen and Teddy were waiting for him. Once he was inside the limo, Teddy climbed onto Fitz's lap. Teddy wanted his father to hold him until it was time for the limo to start moving. Teddy knew he had to be in his special seat in the limo when the limo was moving.

"Everything ok, Dad?" asked Karen.

"Everything is fine. Abby is checking on something. Once she's done, she'll get into the limo and we'll head off to Vanderberg."

As Fitz was holding Teddy, he was wondering what was taking Abby so long to call him to give him an update on Olivia's status. He then noticed the ambulance that was part of his motorcade was moving without its siren on out of the procession. As the wait lagged on, he wanted to pull out his cell phone to call Abby to find out what was going but he couldn't with Karen being in the car. Karen didn't know about Olivia's abduction and was still thinking Olivia was in Boulder with Quinn.

When Abby got into the limousine, Abby gave Fitz a look that told him that something was seriously wrong. They knew they couldn't talk about it in front of Karen. Fitz told Teddy he needed to get into his car seat so they could be on their way to the plane to take them home. Teddy quickly got off Fitz's lap to go into his car seat. Once he was settled inside the seat, Fitz buckled him and double checked to make sure Teddy was properly fastened in. Fitz's motorcade then made its way out of the park and as it was heading out, the motorcade ambulance rejoined the procession.

As the motorcade made its trip to Vanderberg, Teddy was chatting about going home and asking Fitz all the things they would be doing together since he would staying with his Daddy while Mommy was on her trip. However, even with Teddy's non-stop chatter, Karen sensed there was something wrong and her father and Abby were hiding something from her. Karen knew one of the disadvantages of being an older teen who wasn't 18 was adults would still treat you like a little kid and would hide things out of protection.

When they arrived at Vanderberg, Fitz told Karen and Teddy to stay in the limousine while he and Abby got out. When they got out of the car, Fitz's agents also stepped out the car they were in to provide Fitz coverage. Fitz and Abby moved away from the car so they could talk.

"What happened?" asked Fitz while trying to mask his panic.

"Paul says Olivia in is a medically induced coma."

"A coma?" he asked in a stunned voice. Olivia was conscious and talking only couple days ago when they were in Boulder. Fitz then realized it was Rowan who put Olivia in a coma.

"Paul says he can start the process of reversing the coma. Since Air Force One has an infirmary on board, Paul says he can monitor her there and we get fly her back home safely. I didn't call you because you would have a million questions to ask once you knew. We moved Olivia from the abandoned ambulance to the motorcade ambulance so we could get her to Air Force One."

"Good."

"I think we should get Karen and Teddy on board first before we transport Olivia onto Air Force One. Teddy's nanny is already on board. She can keep Teddy occupy," said Abby. She paused before saying "Fitz, I think you need to tell Karen what's happening. She thinks Olivia and Quinn are in Boulder waiting for us to pick them up." Both Fitz and Abby knew their luck in hiding what happened from Karen had run out. They already had gone through extreme measures to hide the truth from Karen. To hide the fact Quinn was in Santa Barbara, she stayed in a room that wasn't part of the presidential floors. To explain Leo's presence at the hotel, they came up with plausible explanation that Leo gave his advice to Mellie and was coming home with them. The bruises were the result of Leo passing out from being sick and hitting his face on the ground.

Fitz nodded in agreement before going back to the limousine and telling Karen and Teddy they were going broad Air Force One. As soon as Karen unbuckled Teddy from his car seat, he jumped out of the seat to get out the car. He took Fitz's hand and the two waited for Karen to get out. The three of them along with their agents walk towards the plane. When got to the bottom of the steps of stair leading up to the entrance of the plane, Teddy tugged the hand Fitz was holding and Fitz knew Teddy wanted to climb up the steps by himself. Fitz let go of Teddy's hand and watched Teddy climb up the steps. Even though his legs weren't long enough to reach each of the steps to the plane, Teddy loved the challenge of climbing up the steps without his Daddy's help.

As soon as Teddy reached the top of landing of the staircase, he turned to Fitz to say "Daddy, Daddy, I climbed all the way without your help," in a proud voice.

"I know. You're getting to be a big boy. I'm proud of you."

When Teddy saw Jenn standing at the entrance of the plane, he asked "Nanny Jenn, did you see me climb all the way up?" as he took her hand and the two walked off to a private room that was set up to be Teddy's space when he flew on Air Force One.

Once Fitz and Karen were inside Air Force One, Fitz said "Karen, there's something I need to tell you."

"What is it, Dad?"

"Let's talk in my study/office," said Fitz as he directed Karen to his study/office. After the two sat down on the small sofa in the study/office, Fitz proceeded to tell Karen about Olivia's abduction.

While the two were talking, Abby and Paul worked on getting Olivia transported onto Air Force One. Since Olivia was lying on a stretcher, Abby arranged with Vanderberg's base operations team to obtain a hydraulic lift to elevate the stretcher from the ground up to the entrance of the plane. Once the stretcher was in front of the entrance, Paul and members of the plane crew moved the stretcher from the lift to inside the plane and wheeled the stretcher to the infirmary.

Quinn and Leo were standing in the back watching Olivia being wheeled into the infirmary. Quinn wanted to follow Olivia into the infirmary but Leo stopped her. "Abby will tell us what's happening. We should just let the doctors do their work."

Five minutes later, Abby boarded Air Force One. Once she boarded, the head of the flight crew informed the pilot Abby was on board and the plane crew prepared the plane and everyone on board for take-off.

Once the plane was in the air and flying back to DC, Fitz emerged out of his private/study alone. He knew Karen needed some time alone to process what he had told her. Fitz realized Rowan's action of leaving Olivia at the rally and knowing that she would be founded wasn't so much as Rowan wanting Fitz to find her but rather once Olivia was found, he couldn't hide the truth from Karen.

Karen would be angry and upset with him for not being honest with her as to what was happening. Along with her being upset with him, Karen would ask why Olivia was abducted. In the course of explaining the why, some things would also have to be explained, such as why would Mellie have someone like Rowan helping her with her presidential campaign.

Between him and Mellie as parents, Fitz wasn't much of a deflector. He knew this was the result of having Big Jerry as a father who would time and again lie and mislead him when he was growing up. Fitz swore he wouldn't be like his father and the times when he did lapse into his father's behavior and had to be reminded of it, either by Mellie or Olivia, he always took it as wake-up call of needing to do better for his children.

While misleading Karen was perhaps him not doing right for his daughter, however, as part of the doing better in this case was him not telling Karen the full truth about Rowan and the things Mellie had done. He had couched the explanation in terms of Mellie's political ambition as to why she wanted someone like Rowan helping her out. Karen was old enough to recognize her mother was an ambitious woman who wanted to be president and would be willing to compromise certain things to achieve it. While Karen may have inherently knew this about Mellie, Fitz also knew it didn't mean Karen still didn't have certain expectations about her mother, just like he had expectations about Big Jerry and when the expectations fell short, there was always the pain knowing your parents had fallen short.

While giving Karen space, Fitz also wanted to check on Olivia so he headed to the infirmary. As he was walking to the infirmary, he saw Abby and Quinn huddled together.

"Any word on Olivia?"

"No. We were waiting for Paul to come out to say something to us," replied Abby.

"Why don't the three of us check on her?"

When they got to the infirmary, they saw an unconscious Olivia hooked to medical monitors following her life signs. Although he wasn't a medical person, Fitz saw that Olivia had a study pulse rate and he took that a positive sign.

"How is she?" he asked Paul.

Paul gestured to the three of them to move to the side of the room so they could talk. "I discontinued the IV that was feeding the barbiturate causing the coma but I'm worried the coma might hamper her recovery."

"What do you mean?" asked Fitz in an alarmed voice.

"A medically induced coma is something doctors only do as a last recourse to help a critically ill patient to recover. Olivia didn't need to put into a coma since she was on way to recovery from the traumatic brain injury and brain tumor. But in the situation of a normal healthy person who has been put in a medically induced coma, reversing the effects should take a few hours – enough time for the brain to be cleared out of the drug. However, in Olivia's case, since her brain was in a fragile state from the surgeries, there is the possibility to may take longer for the drug to clear out of Olivia's brain."

Paul paused before saying "I don't want to make any promises, Mr. President. We have a 6-7 hour flight ahead of us. Olivia could wake up by the time we land in DC. However, there is always the possibility that some damage might have been done. Regardless of either scenario, Olivia will get transported to James Madison Hospital when we are in DC. If she isn't awake by the time we land, she'll get a full neurological workup when she's at the hospital."

"Ok. Make sure she has the best people caring for her."

"That's already handled." said Paul with a reassuring smile. "In the meantime, all of you can take turns sitting with her. Talking to her might help raise her level of consciousness and could help her to wake up."

Paul then left the infirmary leaving the three of them with an unconscious Olivia. "I'll sit with her first, if that's ok?" said Abby. Abby didn't know if Fitz was going to try to bump her in priority. In Abby's handbook of sisterhood, best friend trumped over ex-boyfriend.

"That's fine, Abby," said Fitz. He knew Abby regarded Olivia as her best friend even though their friendship got battered during the past several months because of the election.

"Sure thing. When you want a break, just come and get me," said Quinn.

Fitz and Quinn then left Abby alone with Olivia with Fitz closing the door behind them so give Abby privacy with Olivia.

During the next four hours of their flight back to DC, the three of them took turns sitting with Olivia. Normally, for Fitz and Abby, they would be working during the flight but neither one's attention was focused on work. Fitz was also dealing with the situation of his children needing him. While Teddy had his nanny, Fitz made periodic visits to Teddy's private room to make sure he was ok. With Karen, he was trying to make amends with her for not telling her the truth and at the same time trying to provide her comfort as she dealt the knowledge of what Mellie would do to become POTUS.

In the end, as Fitz discovered, it was easier for Karen to forgive him for deceiving her than for her to accept her mother's actions when Karen told him she didn't want to talk about Mellie. Rather she asked about Olivia and said she wanted to see her. Fitz took her to the infirmary to see Olivia. He had tears welling in his eyes when he heard Karen say to Olivia "It's ok, Olivia. You are safe with us. We are going to take care of you. Dad made sure the best doctors in DC will be taking care of you once we are home."

Yet, the longer it was taking for Olivia to wake up, it was more likely she suffered damage from being put into a medically induced coma. Fitz remained optimistic that even if Olivia didn't wake up during the flight back, there was still the chance she would wake up when she was in the hospital. Although Air Force One's infirmary was state of the art and was equipped to be an operating room if needed, the hospital would be able to offer her more in terms of care and resources to helping her get better.

Fitz was alone with Olivia in the infirmary and was stroking her cheek with the back of his hand. He remembered when he had been in a coma from his assassination attempt, he felt Olivia's presence when she climbed into his hospital bed and lay next to him. When he felt Olivia's body next to him, he somehow started to work his way through the "cloud" of the coma to come to consciousness. Granted Olivia's small build allowed her to climb into his hospital bed more easily, but the infirmary bed was large enough for him to lie next to Olivia. Fitz slipped off his shoes and as he moved his body so he could lie next to Olivia, he laid one arm carefully over Olivia so not further injure the broken arm she had and positioned the other arm to rest above Olivia's head. As he lay next to Olivia, he whispered "I love you, Livie, and I'm here for you".

* * *

 _Olivia, wearing a white sundress, is standing the hallway of the Vermont home and hears Fitz calling out "Livie, help! I'm outnumbered!"_

 _She runs to the room where she hears Fitz's voice coming from, pushes the slightly open door back and rushes into the room. In the room she finds Fitz lying on the floor with twin boy girl toddlers on top of him. The twin toddlers have a combination of Olivia and Fitz's features._

" _Help me, Livie," Fitz says with broad smile. "I'm under attack by our two mini-monsters."_

" _No monster, Daddy!" the toddlers protests loudly._

 _Olivia laughs as she sits down next to Fitz. "Which one do you want me to take, Matthew-monster or Ava-monster?" she asks._

" _Go with Mommy," says Matthew as climbs off of Fitz into Olivia's waiting arms. Matthew gives his mother a big kiss and then snuggles into her arms._

" _The kids are working on a family picnic," says Fitz as he wraps his arms around his youngest daughter._

" _Uh oh. Are we going to have a kitchen left?"_

" _It'll be fine. Karen and whatever his name is are in charge of the troops."_

" _His name is Joshua, or Josh, as he prefers," says Olivia referring to Karen's boyfriend who is visiting with them during their summer vacation in Vermont._

" _I suppose I'll eventually remember his name," say Fitz. He then says in a wishful voice "I wish I was still President. If I was still President, any boy with a high enough IQ will know to stay away from my daughters. Secret Service agents with big guns plus the entire US military force at my disposal are excellent deterrents."_

 _Olivia laughs at Fitz's overprotectiveness. "No. Any boy who was afraid of you would stay away and you wouldn't want that. A boy with a high enough IQ will be smart enough to convince the President of the United States to let him date his daughter."_

" _I hate it when you are right," says Fitz with a sexy smile. He changes the subject with "It's great that you can close down OPA for a few weeks in the summer while we have family time here in Vermont."_

" _Technically, it isn't closed. The gladiators are holding down the fort while I'm away."_

 _Arianna and Harrison then come running into the room. "Daddy, Mommy, we are ready for the picnic. Karen and Josh are packing up the food and drink" says Harrison._

 _Arianna adds "Teddy is getting the super large blanket for all of us to sit on."_

" _What are we having for our picnic?" asks Fitz._

" _All sorts of stuff. There are peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwiches we made using Mommy's world famous strawberry jam," Arianna replies._

" _Yummy. I love peanut butter-strawberry jam sandwiches" says Fitz. "Ava, sweetie, can you get off of Daddy so I can get up?" he asks as he unwraps his arms around Ava. Ava gets off of Fitz and asks "Picnic? Outside?"_

" _Yeah, Ava. We are having a picnic in the yard," replies Olivia. Matthew lets go of Olivia so Olivia can get up as well. After Fitz gets up from the floor and stands up, Matthew and Ava each take one of the Fitz's hands and they start to walk out of the room following behind Arianna and Harrison. As Olivia starts to get up, she becomes light headed and tries to keep her balance._

 _While she is trying to keep her balance, the room swirls and transforms into a barren open field. Olivia regains her balance and discovers she is alone in the field. She is scared and starts calling out for Fitz and their children but there are no responses._

 _When Olivia turns her head, she sees herself – an Olivia wearing a dark business pantsuit._

 _Business suit Olivia says_ "You need to wake up, Olivia. This isn't real."

 _Sundress Olivia replies "No. I don't want to wake up. This is real to me. I have Fitz. Kids. Jam. Vermont. I'm not going to leave them."_

"You have to, Olivia. You can't spend the rest of your life asleep."

" _I want this life. If I'm awake, I won't have it."_

"If you want this life, Olivia, you have to wake up. You need to be a gladiator. Fight for Fitz, kids, jam, and Vermont."

" _I'm not strong enough to fight. I'm not gladiator anymore."_

 _Business suit Olivia shouts at sundress Olivia_ "Yes, you are!" _She then shakes sundress Olivia and yells_ "Wake up, Olivia! Wake up, Olivia!" _Business suit Olivia continues to shake sundress Olivia harder and harder and sundress Olivia can't fight off business suit Olivia. Sundress Olivia knows the only way she can get rid of business suit Olivia if she wakes up…_

Olivia opened her eyes and began to stir in the bed. Fitz felt Olivia's body moving and shifted his body so he can see Olivia's face. When he saw an awakened Olivia, he felt tears in his eyes and said "Hi," with a big smile.

"Hi," responded back Olivia also with a smile.


	13. The Coast Isn't Clear

**Sorry for the delay in posting new installments to the story. I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Olivia glanced around the room and didn't recognize where she was. "Where am I?"

"You're in the infirmary on Air Force One."

Olivia remembered she was supposed to fly back to DC with Fitz on Air Force One when she was in the hospital in Boulder. When she thought back to being in Boulder, she remembered strange men coming into her hospital room. "Some men came into my hospital room, Fitz…"

"You were taken from your room, Livie. Under your father's orders," said Fitz. He then recounted what Rowan had done, the White House appearing at Mellie's campaign rally in Santa Barbara, and how they found her at the rally.

As Olivia listened to Fitz, she felt her anger rise towards her father for all the harm and danger he caused. It was no longer a question about him being locked up in prison in order to stop him. "Fitz, my father has to be stopped once and for all. Whatever it takes. Do you understand?

Fitz nodded his head. He then said "I'm going to get Paul so he can check you to make sure you're ok," he said as he was about to move off the bed.

"No. Not yet." protested Olivia. She was still dealing with the shock from waking up from her dream world of her and Fitz in Vermont to her present world. "Can you just hold me? One minute."

Fitz nodded as he said "One minute." He then lay next to Olivia with Olivia's head resting on his shoulder and his arms wrapped around her while being mindful of the broken arm. As she was lying in Fitz's arms, Olivia could feel tears flowing from her eyes. She was thinking about her dream world and was feeling lost and sad. When Fitz felt his shirt getting wet, he shifted his body and saw Olivia crying. "Livie, what's wrong?"

She couldn't tell him about her dream world of Vermont – of them, their kids, strawberry jam. Especially the part about the kids knowing she had an abortion. It was too hard for her to talk about it at the moment. "I can't talk about it now. Maybe later."

"Ok. You can tell me when you are ready," said Fitz in a gentle voice. "I'm going to find Paul now and let Abby, Quinn, and Karen know that you are awake."

Olivia nodded her head as Fitz got off the bed. After he put on his shoes, he left the room to give the good news that Olivia was awake.

* * *

As Air Force One was getting towards the end of its flight back to DC, Charlie was in Quinn's apartment sitting at a table in front of a laptop decoding the series of encrypted coded emails Huck sent him.

Charlie had been in phone and text contact with Quinn while she was away for the campaign trail for the most part. They had spoken on the phone when she had been in Boulder letting him know she was coming home with Olivia and they were flying back with the President on Air Force One. Then he got a text from Quinn saying there was a change in plans about her and Olivia coming home and there was delay as to when she and Olivia would be coming back to DC. Quinn didn't go into details on the change and he hadn't pressed her. When Charlie saw on the news that Fitz and the White House were in Santa Barbara campaigning for Mellie, he assumed that was the reason for the change in plans but didn't think there was anything unusual about it. That was until he got Huck's emails.

Huck encrypted the emails before he sent them to Charlie so that only Charlie would be the only person, hopefully, to open them should the emails be hacked into. When Charlie opened up the emails, he saw the emails were written in a code that the he and Huck came up with during their days as B6-13 agents, a private code shared only between the two of them that neither Rowan/Command nor Jake knew. Having the emails written in a code added another layer of security to the messages Huck was trying to get to Charlie.

As Charlie deciphered Huck's emails, he learned of what happened to Olivia in Boulder and what Rowan did. Charlie also had the feeling that Huck wasn't telling him everything but what he needed to know. As a former spy for a covert CIA group, Charlie understood the principle of "need to know" very well and wasn't offended if Huck was holding back on him. Charlie knew Huck encrypted and coded the emails to him as precautionary measures should Rowan's team be monitoring what Huck was doing. Although he and Huck were Rowan's "sons" but neither one of them were entirely loyal to Rowan and Rowan knew this. Hence, Huck hadn't put it pass Rowan to be hacking into his email.

When Charlie deciphered the last of the emails messages Huck sent, he found out why Huck was reaching out to him – Olivia was still in danger and Quinn would need help in keeping Olivia safe. He didn't know when Quinn would be arriving in Andrews Air Force Base with Olivia and her cell phone was probably turned off because she was in the air. Nonetheless, even with the off cell phone, he could leave her voice message and a text message for her to get in contact with him immediately and she would get them once she turned on her phone.

It was almost 9:30PM when Air Force One landed at Andrews. An ambulance was already waiting at Andrews when Air Force One landed to take Olivia to James Madison Hospital. Karen and Teddy with their agents, Leo, and Jenn disembarked the plane first. Karen and Teddy were taken to Fitz's motorcade limousine while Jenn was taken to another car that part of the motorcade. Leo was taken to a non-motorcade car that would be taking him and Abby home. After Karen, Teddy, Jenn, and Leo were settled into their respective cars, the process of getting Olivia off of Air Force One and into the ambulance began. Quinn was next to get off Air Force One and stood on the ground waiting for Olivia to be brought down from the plane onto the ground.

A hydraulic lift was already in place to bring down Olivia in a stretcher from the plane to ground. Fitz stayed with Olivia until it was time to transport out her out of Air Force One onto the ground. He couldn't stay with Olivia while the stretcher was being lowered to the ground on the lift because there wasn't enough space on the lift for Fitz, his agents, and Paul plus the stretcher. Fitz had to watch Olivia being lowered onto the ground with Paul.

Once Olivia was on the ground, the lift was moved away so the staircase could be put back in place so Fitz and his agents along with Abby could disembark the plane. Fitz quickly hurriedly out of the plane with his agents and Abby trailing behind him. When he reached the ground, he walked over to Olivia and held her hand as he and Paul wheeled the stretcher, with Fitz's agents surrounding them, to where the ambulance was parked.

Before Olivia was loaded into the ambulance, Fitz said "I'll call you once I get Karen and Teddy settled," and Olivia nodded her head to acknowledge his promise. Paul informed him a private room in a closed off wing was already in place for Olivia when she got to the hospital. Since it was late and there was no sign of Olivia of being in imminent medical danger, any tests and scans would be performed tomorrow but Olivia would be taken to her room immediately and be seen by the hospital admitting doctor in her room for an initial assessment.

Once Olivia was loaded into the ambulance, Paul and Quinn got into the back of the ambulance with one of the paramedics as the other paramedic turned on the engine to start to vehicle. As the ambulance was making its journey to the gates of the base to exit out, Fitz and his agents walked to his motorcade limousine while Abby went to the car where Leo waiting for him. After Fitz got into the motorcade limousine, the signal was given to start the motorcade out of Andrews so it could make its trip back to the White House. When the presidential motorcade left Andrews, the driver of the car that Abby and Leo were in started the engine and proceeded out of the base to take Abby and Leo home.

Couple of hours later, Olivia was settled into her hospital room and was being seen by the admitting doctor. Quinn stepped out of Olivia's room to give them privacy and turned on her cell phone. Since Olivia didn't need to be hooked to medical monitors and she was the only patient in the wing of the floor, there was no concern that an on cell phone would interfere with medical equipment. When she checked her phone, Quinn saw that Charlie had both called her and left her a text message. Charlie's text message said "Urgent. Call ASAP." After seeing the text, she immediately called Charlie.

* * *

It was almost midnight when Fitz finally had a quiet moment in the Residence. As soon he, Karen, and Teddy arrived at the White House, he immediately got them upstairs to the Residence so he could get Teddy settled in bed. Even though Nanny Jenn offered to get Teddy ready for bed, Fitz politely declined and got Teddy ready bed himself. He gave Teddy a quick bath and after Teddy got into his pajamas, Fitz tucked him into bed and started to read him a bedtime story. Fitz knew Teddy was exhausted from the trip plus the time zone change and wouldn't last for the full the story, and got confirmation when Teddy fell fast asleep when he got to the fifth page in the story book.

After getting Teddy into bed, Fitz got a call from Paul on his cell phone. Paul was letting him know Olivia was settled into her hospital room and the admitting doctor was checking on her.

"Thanks for letting me know," said Fitz. "Thank you for everything you have done."

"No problem, Fitz. I'm glad I was able to help."

"You should be heading home getting some sleep."

"I will. Good night, Fitz."

"Good night, Paul."

After Fitz ended his call with Paul, he went to check on Karen. He knew Karen, being the typical teenager, was probably a night owl and on her tablet or laptop in her room. Since Karen was on her summer vacation from school, Fitz didn't see the need to monitor her sleep schedule and given what they all been through, he was willing to be an indulgent father and let Karen stay up all night if she wanted to and to sleep in. Nonetheless, he still wanted to make sure Karen was ok and if she wanted to talk, he would be available for her. Instead on her tablet or laptop in her bedroom, Fitz found Karen in the living room watching the _Jimmy Kimmel_ show. With Karen being was away at boarding school and only lived at the White House when she came to visit during the odd weekend or on break during the holidays and in the summers, she didn't have a TV in her bedroom at the White House. When he asked her how she was doing, Karen assured him she was fine and they could talk tomorrow.

Fitz then headed to the master bedroom and got ready for bed. When he settled into bed and was about to call Olivia at the hospital to see how she was doing, his cell phone rang. He saw it was Abby calling him.

"Abby. Has something happened?" Fitz was hoping a national or international emergency hadn't transpired but if it did, duty called and he would be in presidential mode in a moment's notice.

"No emergency, Fitz but we do have a situation that's brewing. I just spoke to Quinn on the phone. She got some disturbing news from Huck. Huck sent encrypted and coded emails to Charlie. It seems Olivia might get abducted again."

When Fitz heard the possibility of a second abduction, he raised his eyebrows and wondered what kind of game Rowan was playing. "Are you serious? What the hell is going on with Rowan? He gets Olivia back to us and now he wants to…"

Before Fitz could finish, Abby interrupted with "It's not Rowan who is planning to take Olivia. It's Jake."


	14. When Things Can't Get Any Worse

**Author's Note:**

I took artistic license on the canon Andrew Nichols's storyline and the set-up of Olivia's apartment building for the story.

* * *

"Jake?!" exclaimed Fitz as he ran his hand through his hair.

"Jake was misled by Rowan to thinking they were keeping Olivia and would be pulling a bait and switch on you. Jake didn't know Rowan got Olivia back to us until they were back at the ranch house after the rally…"

"Which would explain why Jake said to me that I wasn't getting Olivia back," commented Fitz.

"According to Huck, Rowan told Jake they needed to let Olivia go because she no longer had value to them with their plans and she would only be a burden to them…"

Fitz had already suspected Rowan's act of letting him have Olivia was because she no longer had any purpose to Rowan's plans. In Rowan's twisted mind, rather than completely abandoning Olivia, he "gave" Olivia to someone who would care for her regardless of her physical and mental state.

Abby continued on "A huge fight broke out between Rowan and Jake. Jake said he was going to find a way to get Olivia back and to keep her. Huck believes Jake is going to do something even though he is going to need some time to organize it. As security measures, Quinn and Charlie are going to take turns to stay with Olivia while she's in the hospital. Quinn promised no food or snack runs to avoid what happened in Boulder from happening again. When Olivia gets discharged, they will stay with her at her apartment."

Before Fitz could respond to Abby's comments, Karen came rushing into the master bedroom and exclaimed "Dad, turn on the TV! Olivia's apartment building is on the fire!"

Fitz was processing what Karen said to him and was slow to respond to her request. Karen ran to his bedside table and grabbed the TV remote to turn on the TV. The image that appeared on the TV screen was a TV field reporter from one of the local DC TV stations standing some distance away from a burning apartment building giving a report. "Late Breaking Report" flashed at the bottom of the screen. Even with the camera showing the building at a distance, Fitz recognized it as Olivia's building. Karen turned up the volume to hear the report.

 _ **Firefighters have been on the scene for the past half hour and at this time the cause for the fire is unknown. However, what we can see is the fire is spreading.**_

 _ **As mentioned early in the report, we have confirmation the apartment building is where Olivia Pope, DC's top political crisis management expert and Republican Party presidential candidate Senator Mellie Grant's campaign manager lives. We do know Ms. Pope was not at home at the time when the fire broke out…**_

"Thank God for that!" exclaimed Fitz as he got out bed and walked closer to the TV. He forgot he was still holding his cell phone until he heard Abby cry out "Oh my God!" through the phone.

"Abby…" said Fitz when he spoke into the phone.

"I turned on the TV to see what was happening. The fire looks pretty bad," said Abby in an anxious voice.

Fitz, Karen, and Abby then saw a firefighter carry out a lifeless body out of the building on their respective TV screens and heard the reporter say _**While the majority of the tenants were able to evacuate out of the building but some hadn't. As the firefighters work to control the blaze, they are also in engage in a search and rescue for remaining tenants in the building…**_

"Fitz, you don't think the fire has anything to do with Jake's plot of getting Olivia back?"

As Fitz watched the news story on the TV, he didn't think there was a Jake connection on a rational level. He didn't know how burning down Olivia's apartment building would help Jake. However, it was also possible Jake could be working with some twisted logic, the same kind Rowan would use, to support his actions. "I don't know. We can't rule it out entirely until we know what caused the fire."

Fitz then said "I was about to call Olivia when you called me. I'm going to call her."

"All right. Call me if Olivia needs anything."

"Sure thing, Abby."

Before Fitz made his call to Olivia, Karen said to him "Dad, it's ok if you need to go to the hospital to be with Olivia. Teddy is sleeping and Jenn and I will be here. If there's a problem, I'll call you."

Fitz nodded his head before calling Olivia. When Olivia answered her phone, all she could say in despair was "Fitz, my apartment." He presumed Olivia had the TV on and saw the TV news report of the fire in her apartment building. Olivia was in distress from seeing the image of her home up in flames and smoke and she needed to be comforted.

"Livie, I'll be at the hospital in half an hour."

Half an hour later, Fitz's agents entered Olivia's hospital room to do their sweep. In anticipation of Fitz visiting Olivia in the hospital, Secret Service had prepared in advanced a plan on getting Fitz in and out the hospital secretly. When Quinn saw Fitz's agents, she got up from the chair that was next to Olivia's bed and she followed them out as Fitz entered the room. The two exchanged a nod in acknowledgement as Quinn walked out.

Fitz sat on the edge of the Olivia's hospital bed and noticed Olivia, who was sitting up in bed, had been crying with her tear stained face. He also noticed the TV was turned off. He presumed once the TV news report ended, Olivia lost any interest in watching any TV. "I'm sorry about the fire. Have you heard anything about it?"

"My building super called me to tell me about the fire but he doesn't any information yet on the damage. He won't know until the fire investigators do their investigation and that won't happen until they put out the fire and the place is safe enough for them to enter."

"It's possible your apartment was spared, or if it was affected, the damage is minimal."

"I hope so," said Olivia in a less than optimistic voice. "Thanks for coming to see me. You should be in bed sleeping. You have a country to run."

"I wanted to come. Don't worry about me. Speaking about sleeping, are you able to sleep? Do you want me to get a nurse to give you something to help you..."

"I don't want to take anything. After being doped up from the medically induced coma, I don't want any more drugs in my system."

"Ok."

"Fitz, can you stay with me?

"Of course. Let me call Abby and Karen to them know I'm here with you," said Fitz. Fitz then stepped outside the room to make his calls.

As Olivia waited for Fitz to come back to the room, she lay back on the bed exhausted. She was still adjusting to the real world after waking up from her Vermont dream world. Her building fire was now an add-on problem to the concern about Jake's plan to do something. When Fitz came back into the room, Olivia moved to one side of the bed in hopes Fitz would be willing to lie next to her. After Fitz set his cell phone on the bedside table and slipped off his shoes, he got into the bed and lay next to Olivia.

Fitz reached to touch Olivia and said "I called David while on the way here to ask him to use his contacts with local law enforcement to get as much information on the cause of the fire. We need to make sure there isn't anything suspicious about the fire now that we know Jake is planning something…"

"Concocting a plan to set my apartment building on fire seems off the wall…"

"I think so too but we need to make sure he has nothing to do with it."

Olivia nodded her head before saying "This whole thing with Jake is because of my father. My father promised Jake that I would be his "grand prize" for going along with the fixed Republican Party presidential ticket."

Olivia then added "When I was starting to recover from my surgery, I finally realized what I done with fixing the presidential ticket. I confided in Jake but he told me it was ok because it part of my father's plan of us getting the Oval."

"Us?"

"Jake, my father and me. My father's ultimate plan was for the three of us to be running the country. My father with his son and his daughter as the three most powerful people in the world. The two of them had a plan in place where Mellie would get caught up in some kind of scandal and she would be forced to resign. Jake would become President and I would be his Chief of Staff and my father would be his special advisor"

What Olivia told Fitz confirmed what he suspected Rowan had a plan about Jake becoming the President and which also explained why Olivia told Jake to stay away from her when she made the decision to remove herself from the situation.

When she and Fitz were in Boulder, they hadn't talked in detailed about the fixed Republican Party presidential ticket. Olivia knew there were things she hadn't told Fitz about it but she knew it was time Fitz knew. "Setting up Jake to become the VP candidate started with the hacking into former NSA Director Diane Peters' personal computer to access the Project Mercury files and framing her boyfriend for it. Jake murdered the boyfriend to prevent the boyfriend from denying the hacking charges. Jake and my father orchestrated so he could become NSA Director. He needed it as the stepping stone for credibility for political office…"

Fitz was stunned with the information Olivia told him. He had put Jake on the mission to do damage control on the hacking of the Project Mercury files and ultimately made Jake NSA Director.

"My father played you – he knew you would turn to Jake for help because you trusted him and would want someone you could trust to take over as NSA Director. My father manipulated me in thinking he was going to harm Jake. By making Jake the VP candidate, I thought I would be getting Jake away from my father and providing him protection but the truth is it was my father's intention all along. My father knew I would do whatever it took to protect and save Jake based on what I did to clear Jake's name in Jerry's murder."

Olivia then said "Jake marrying Vanessa was a front to make him an acceptable political candidate. I don't know if there was a plan in place for Jake to divorce Vanessa or Vanessa would remain as the political wife for show. Regardless, Jake was thinking or planning that he and I would have a relationship with him while he was in office. He has come this far so he is not letting me go."

"We'll come up with a plan to keep you safe so he can't come near you," said Fitz firmly.

"Jake doesn't have the same kind of resources that my father has in order to arrange for me to be taken. It's possible he might use blackmail. He can use Andrew's murder against me."

"How does he know about Andrew?" Fitz was thinking either Olivia confided in Jake as to what she had done or somehow Mellie inadvertently mentioned it to Jake. If it was the latter, he would be kicking himself for telling Mellie about Andrew's murder and Olivia's role in it.

"Jake knows I used his access card to get into the White House after Abby revoked my privileges. He probably knows that I talked to my father about Andrew and my father told me the only way to handle Andrew was to kill him. He knows Andrew died and even though it was announced the cause of death was injuries he got from the West Angola bombing, he suspects it is a cover. Since he is still NSA Director, he can dig around for information…"

"It'll be all right, Livie. We'll figure something out." Fitz then wrapped his arms around Olivia while being careful with Olivia's broken arm. Olivia rested her head on Fitz's shoulder and closed her eyes. Fitz also closed his eyes and soon the two of them fell asleep in each other's arms.

It was five o'clock in the morning when Fitz's cell phone rang. Fitz grabbed the phone off the bedside and saw it was Abby calling him.

"Good morning, Abby," whispered Fitz over the phone as he gently got out the hospital bed so not to disturb Olivia as she was sleeping.

"Good morning, Fitz. Just giving you a wake-up call so you can get back to the White House before the press corps arrived."

"Thanks."

"How is Olivia doing?"

"She's sleeping," replied Fitz.

When he called Abby to let her know he was going to stay with Olivia, Abby recommended she give him a wake-up call so he could slip back into the White House before the White House press corps arrived for work. He needed to slip back into the White House before the press corps' arrival to avoid questions being raised by the press corps as to his whereabouts during the night.

Ironically, even though Fitz only managed a few hours of sleep, he felt it was the best night of sleep he had for a long time and felt well rested. Well rested what he needed with the day he had ahead. Along with making up cancelled meetings because of the Santa Barbara trip, he also had a special meeting at Langley to discuss Rowan. In addition, there were now the matters of Jake's plans to "reclaim" Olivia and finding out what caused the fire in Olivia's apartment building and whether the two were connected.

After Fitz put on his shoes, he sent Olivia a text – _I wanted to let you sleep. Need to get back to the WH. I'll call you later,_ when he couldn't find any paper and pen to leave a note for Olivia.

When he opened the door to Olivia's room, Fitz saw one of his Secret Service agents standing outside the door. The agent then spoke to his wired microphone letting the other agents on the team know Fitz was on the move. As the other agents assembled and escorted Fitz down the hallway, they ran into Quinn who emerged out a patient lounge room.

"Good morning, Quinn," said Fitz.

"Good morning, Mr. President. Abby just called me to let me know you were getting to ready. I'll head to Olivia's room and stay with her until she wakes up."

"Thanks, Quinn."

"Your welcome."

As Fitz and his agents proceeded down the hallway, Quinn continued on in the opposite direction to Olivia's room.

Once they got Fitz into his unmark SUV, they made the trip back to White House. Even though it was only 6AM when Fitz got back to the White House, he decided to start his day. After he checked on Karen and Teddy, who were both sleeping soundly in their rooms, Fitz showered, shaved, and got dressed. He then headed down to the Oval to start the process of catching up on his work.

It was around 8AM when Abby and David entered into the Oval to see him. They exchanged "good mornings" before David gave him a report about the Olivia's apartment building fire.

"I'm not sure if this is good news or bad news on the cause of the fire," said David. "Based on the preliminary investigation by the fire department, the fire started in the apartment below Olivia's apartment. They don't know if the tenant intentionally or accidentally caused the fire. The tenant is in critical condition at the hospital with smoke inhalation and burns. The investigators don't know if they are going to be able to interview the tenant to ask about fire."

"But they are sure the fire stated in the apartment beneath Olivia's?" asked Fitz.

"Yeah, they are certain about that and this has resulted in a serious problem for Olivia. Since the fire occurred in the apartment directly below Olivia's apartment, her apartment was destroyed in the fire. Because the apartment is a low rise building, it didn't have a sprinkler system in place and the fire was able to spread upwards." David paused before saying "I'm presuming her building's super will be getting in contact with her today to let her know about her apartment."

After David spoke, the three of them exchanged silent glances with each other and shared the thought that adding to Olivia's list of troubles was her losing her home.


	15. A Gladiator Re-emerges

While David was debriefing Fitz and Abby in the Oval about Olivia's building fire and the status of her apartment, Olivia got the phone call from her building super letting her know her apartment had been destroyed from the fire. As the super broke the horrible news about her losing her home, Olivia knew she needed to hold it together long enough to ask questions about getting her apartment repaired to make it habitable. Since she owned her apartment, she would need to have deal with the insurance company to get the monies to do the repair/reconstruction work, hire an architect to draw up the plans for the apartment and a contractor to do the work. Not to mention there was also the need to get permits to do the construction work. All of this would take months before she finally had an apartment to live. While the reconstruction-repair work would be taking place, she would need to have another place to live.

After she got off the phone, Olivia shed some tears as she processed the situation. Quinn, who was also in the room, was able to overhear the conversation Olivia had with her building super. "Oh, Liv, I'm so sorry about your apartment," she said as she sat next to Olivia on the edge of the hospital bed and gave Olivia a hug.

"Thanks, Quinn."

After they broke from their hug, Quinn asked "Do you want me to look into hotels? You are going to need someplace to stay for a few days while you figured out what to do."

"Yeah, that will be great."

"I'll call Charlie and ask him to bring my laptop to the hospital." Abby arranged for Quinn's luggage and laptop bag be taken from Andrews to the White House and from there to be delivered to Quinn's apartment with a White House messenger.

Quinn then added "Staying in a hotel for a few days might be a good thing, especially if Jake is planning something. Being in a hotel would allow us to lie low."

Olivia nodded her head in agreement. Quinn knew Olivia well enough to know this was one of those times when Olivia would want to be alone. "I'll be outside. Just call me if you need anything," she said as she got off the bed.

"Ok."

After Quinn left the room, Olivia allowed herself to cry some more as she dealt with the predicament of no longer having a home and losing whatever personal items she had in the apartment. She had the one handbag that she traveled with on the campaign trail with her at the hospital. The remaining clothes she had were the ones she taken on the campaign trail plus whatever she had at OPA. The packed clothes were with Abby – when they were flying back to DC from Santa Barbara, Abby told her that she would store her suitcases and laptop bag at her place and when she got discharged from the hospital, Abby would bring them to her.

After crying for a few minutes, Olivia brushed the tears away from her face. She knew her personal items would get replaced and there would be the insurance monies to cover the lost. She also knew she wasn't destitute and would be able to take care of herself despite having lost her apartment.

Nonetheless, Olivia was still feeling overwhelmed from the pain and loss of waking up from her Vermont dream world as she dealt with her present reality which wasn't just her losing her home. The Vermont dream world represented what she and Fitz lost - what she lost when she walked away while her present world was a sad reminder of the sorry state of their relationship. When Fitz held her last night as they slept together, it buffered the pain she was feeling. Having him so close to her allowed her to relive what she felt when she had been in her Vermont dream world. Also, being able to confide in Fitz about what her father's plans were and about Jake was helping her to cope with the emotional fallout she was feeling as a result of her role in the fixed presidential ticket.

As Olivia thought about her situation, losing her apartment was probably a blessing in disguise. While her apartment was typically her refuge from the outside world, but in this case, for her to go back to her apartment for her recovery after "living" through her dream world of Vermont would be too hard. Her apartment carried a lot of history, not all of it good such as her kidnapping. The kidnapping changed her as a person and those changes ultimately affected her relationship with Fitz. In the recent months, the apartment was where she formed a crazy alliance with Mellie to help her get elected as POTUS and her relationship with Jake turned on a dark note.

Having to "rebuild" her apartment from the fire would give her the chance to start over. It wasn't simply about her home but it was also about herself. During the past few months she lost herself as the person she knew. Granted, it was a brain tumor that significantly altered her personality and decision-making processes. However, it didn't change the fact she had done harmful things and hurt people. She knew she couldn't wear the white hat anymore after some of the things she had done.

Besides the matter of being a willing accomplice to a fixed presidential ticket, she also murdered Andrew Nichols. While the PTSD of her kidnapping contributed to her actions and Andrew Nichols had been the person responsible for her kidnapping but it didn't take away the fact she had taken a life.

In regards to hurting people, one of the people who she hurt the most was Fitz with the chain of events that preceded their breakup – conspiring with Mellie to have her father released from prison, rejecting his attempt to propose to her properly and then only to abandon him on their wedding day, the anger and resentment that built up between the two of them when she was living in the White House leading up to their horrible fight. There was also the unexpected pregnancy which she hadn't told Fitz about and her making the unilateral decision to have the abortion.

She had been stone silent during that meeting with Fitz when he talked about what happened between them because she didn't' know what to say to him. She hadn't expected him to find out about the abortion but somehow he did. She still didn't know what to say to him about the abortion now.

Olivia knew the things Fitz said during their meeting were his way of saying he was sorry for what he done to break them and even though their relationship ended on an angry and bitter note between them, he wanted to let her know things were okay between them and he wasn't angry. Even though Fitz wasn't necessarily angry, it didn't mean he wasn't hurting from the breakup and the abortion. Despite the pain and the hurt, Fitz's actions of supporting her as she recovered from her illnesses and now her losing her home, as well as giving into her father's blackmail so he could get her back safely were his way of showing he still loved her and he would be there for her regardless what has happened.

Despite the fact Fitz still loved her, Olivia didn't know if Vermont was still possible for them in light of the hurt and pain. She then remembered from her dream about her needing to be a gladiator to fight for Fitz, kids, jam, and Vermont. At that moment, Olivia, finding her inner gladiator, focused on what she needed to do to make things right between her and Fitz to keep the hope of Vermont alive…


	16. On the Path of Fixing

**Author's Note:**

How Andrew Nichols's body was disposed out of the White House bunker is part of this story.

* * *

 _5x17 Thwack! - After Olivia's departure from the White House bunker_

After Olivia left the bunker, Abby and Fitz were left alone with Andrew Nichols's dead body. Abby stood frozen over Andrew's body and kept repeating "Oh my God." Fitz knew he needed to take control over the situation.

He said "Abby." However, she didn't hear him and kept repeating "Oh my God." Fitz repeated "Abby" in a loud voice, loud enough to get Abby to regain her attention to the present moment. Abby then focused her attention on Fitz.

"Abby, do what Olivia said. Take care of Lillian Forrester and put together a statement on Andrew's death. I'll take care of Andrew's body." When Fitz saw Abby hesitating, he said in a firm voice "Abby. Go." Abby nodded her head and quickly hurried out of the bunker. After Abby left, Fitz took a deep breath. He then turned his attention to Andrew's body. He surveyed the dead body and saw the massive head trauma and as well as the other injuries Andrew sustained. He saw the bloodied chair and knew Olivia used it to kill Andrew.

To allow him to process the situation in a way that would allow him to accept what happened was to think Olivia had been provoked by Andrew and her killing him had been out of self-defense or something happened while the two were alone and was she did was justified. Olivia, his Olivia, his Livie would never murder someone in cold blood. She would only inflict physical harm to another person if there is an absolute need for it.

Typically, Fitz would have called Jake for help in handling "delicate" situations but in this case, he couldn't. Once Jake knew Andrew was murdered, suspicion would be cast upon Olivia and Fitz couldn't have that. Fitz knew there would there was one person who he could trust and call upon to help him and the White House to dispose of Andrew's body. Since the bunker didn't allow for cell reception, he needed to go to the Oval to make the call. After he left the bunker and was exiting out of the guarded entry, he instructed the guard to only let him or Abby to have access to the bunker because they were keeping some confidential documents in the bunker for the time being.

When Fitz got to the Oval, he immediately picked up the hand set to his desk phone, and using a secured phone line, he made his call.

The person on the other end call answered "Victoria Bradford."

"Victoria, it's Fitz. I need your help. There's been an incident at the White House…"

"What happened?"

"Andrew Nichols has been murdered."

"Murdered!?" exclaimed Victoria. "Fitzgerald, you need to call the FBI…"

"No FBI, Victoria. No investigation. This has to go away. The White House is issuing a statement that he died from injuries sustained from the bomb attack in West Angola," said Fitz firmly. He then added in almost pleading voice "Victoria, please, I need your help."

"All right. I'll come over to make an assessment on what needs to be done. I'll use the underground tunnel to get to the White House."

"Thank you. I'll meet you at the entrance on the White House side."

After Victoria made the 20 minute drive from Langley to DC and found parking for her car, she proceeded to the underground tunnel that led to the White House. When Victoria arrived at the exit that would direct her to the White House, she saw that Fitz was standing there waiting for her.

"Thank you for coming, Victoria."

"I want to help. Lead me the way, Fitzgerald."

Fitz then guided Victoria inside the White House and they navigated through an assortment of hallways and stairs before arriving at the entry point for the bunker. The guard on duty saluted Fitz before he and Victoria walked down the hallway leading to actual entrance to the bunker. When they entered the bunker, Victoria was taken aback slightly with the sight of Andrew's dead body, the bloodied chair, and the blood and tissue in the corner of the room where Andrew laid.

"What the hell happened in here, Fitzgerald?!" exclaimed Victoria. "Why is Andrew Nichols in the White House bunker?"

Fitz couldn't answer the first question because he was still processing what happened. He focused his attention on answering the question by telling Victoria of Andrew's threats and blackmail concerning the disclosure of West Angola and he and everyone else involved were trying to deal with the situation.

Victoria knew the West Angola affair would haunt Fitz and his administration so long as Andrew Nichols was alive and could talk about it. There was the presumption the bullet was dodged with Andrew being incapacitated and not being able to speak. She realized she should have kept closer tabs on Andrew Nichols on monitoring his activities but hadn't because of a lulled sense of security that he couldn't talk. "I admit that my team and I should have been following Nichols but why didn't you call me when the problem came up?"

"We thought we could handle it…"

"You were dealing with a man who planned a political coup, arranged for your girlfriend to be kidnapped, and had the Secret Service monitor your actions. And all of you thought you could simply buy him off?" asked Victoria with a raised eyebrow. "The truth is there is only way Andrew Nichols could have been handled but it shouldn't have been the White House getting their hands dirtied. Now we are dealing with the situation of disposing a murdered body out of the White House, which by no means is an easy feat given all the security and cameras in place. My team and I need to go through White House schemas to figure out the route to get the body out of here.

"But you can do it?"

"We will do it. There's no choice in the matter," replied Victoria. She paused before asking "So who did it, Fitzgerald?" She gave Fitz a look over and didn't see any sign of blood on his clothes. Even though Victoria knew Fitz had plenty of time to change his clothes but she had a feeling that Fitz had nothing to do with Andrew's murder.

Even though Fitz trusted Victoria but he couldn't tell her Olivia murdered Andrew. He had to protect Olivia. "Why does it matter who did it? Can you just focus on disposing the body? I'm going to need to give a public statement in half an hour. I want his body out of the bunker…"

When Victoria heard Fitz's evasiveness and the tone he was speaking to her, she knew Fitz was protecting someone. Victoria knew if Fitz had done it, he would have owned up to it. However, the act of covering up Andrew's murder and who did it could come back to haunt him and what was left of his presidential term. "Fitzgerald, I know you are protecting someone but the more I know I will be able to help you in the end. We need to put measures in place to protect you and White House in case someone finds out and use it against you and the White House."

Rather than answering Victoria, Fitz remained silent. Victoria realized whoever Fitz was protecting was someone not only he was willing to put himself at risk for but also someone who he would protect at all costs given his steadfast silence. In her mind, out of all the individuals involved in the West Angola scandal, there was the one obvious person who he would do this for. She answered her own question rhetorically "It was Olivia, wasn't it?"

* * *

 _Present Time – CIA Headquarters, Langley, VA_

Fitz was meeting with CIA Director Marsha Lowry, Victoria, and the overseers at CIA headquarters after work hours to talk about Rowan. While Fitz would have preferred not to have an after hour meeting outside of the White House since he had Karen and Teddy staying with him, Marsha said it was for the best that any discussions regarding the "Rowan matter" should be done at Langley rather than at the White House, and given the highly sensitive nature of the subject matter, these meetings needed to be done after hours. However, Marsha also knew he had Karen and Teddy staying with him for the time being, she promised the number of meetings they would be having would be as needed until his domestic situation allowed him more flexibility in coming to Langley after hours. Since he had a packed day, Fitz hadn't been able to have lunch with Karen and Teddy but to make up for it, he had his schedule worked out so he could at least have dinner with them before heading to Langley for the meeting. However, instead of him getting Teddy ready for bed, it was Jenn who gave Teddy his bath, read him a story and tucked him into bed.

"Since Rowan is traveling on Senator Grant's campaign trail, we will wait for him to return to DC before we make our move," said Marsha. "But it seems that the CIA isn't the only group interested in Rowan."

"What do you mean?" asked Fitz.

"We have received chatter that some of our allies have come upon intelligence that link Rowan's involvement in activities that have betrayed their interests."

"Our allies finding evidence of Rowan's betrayal, was that deliberate on our part?" Fitz asked with a raised eyebrow.

Humphrey replied with "No. They have suspected it for years. As you probably know Mr. President, allies spying on allies is a two-way street. We have Project Mercury and our allies have their version of it but we all act indignant when it becomes public in order to save face."

"Now that our allies have confirmation of Rowan's betrayal, it's very likely they want to take action on the matter," said Victoria.

From Victoria's comment, it meant Rowan was a marked man and it was a question as to who would get him first, the CIA or their allies who wanted retaliation. However, Fitz also knew Rowan was clever and would figure out some way to evade. "Even with the CIA and allies coming after him, Rowan might have a game plan to elude from being taken down."

Samuel countered with "At this point, Rowan already suspects the CIA will be taking action against him and will be on guard for that but he doesn't know he is a target with our allies. He thinks he covered his tracks with his betrayal. With that said, our allies will have the element of surprise to their advantage."

"Which means we may be relying on our allies to do our dirty work," commented Fitz.

"It's a fallback position for us if we don't succeed," said Michael.

Marsha interjected with "Michael is right, Mr. President. Rowan is our problem and we will deal with him but our allies' interest in Rowan is to our benefit, as well. Should it be the case that it is one of our allies that takes care of Rowan, we won't begrudge them."

"No, we won't," Fitz concurred.

When their meeting came to an end, Marsha and the overseers left the room leaving Fitz and Victoria alone in the room with the door close. Since they were alone, Victoria could speak to Fitz as a concern family member rather than as his "employee." "How is Olivia?" she asked.

"Medically, she is fine. She had scans and tests done today which show there is no permanent damage from the medically induced coma. She is also on her way to full recovery from her brain surgeries. She won't be officially "healed up" from the surgeries for a few more weeks but the doctors are happy with the progress she is making. However, her broken arm will take another 6-8 weeks for it to heal."

"I'm happy she is past the worse of her medical situation. I heard about the fire in her apartment building. Any damage?"

"Unfortunately, yes. She lost her apartment."

"I'm sorry to hear that. What's she going to do when she gets discharged?"

"She's planning to stay in a hotel for a few days as she makes more definitive plans with temporary housing. She's going to need temporary housing while her apartment gets repaired from the fire," replied Fitz. He then paused before saying "There's situation brewing with Jake Ballard. We have information that he is planning to get Olivia to "rejoin" him and Rowan and continue on their path to the White House. Olivia thinks he is going to blackmail her about Andrew Nichols in order to get her to do it."

"How does Jake know Olivia murdered Andrew? Did she tell him?"

"From what Olivia told me, she didn't tell him but he has circumstantial evidence. He knows Olivia used his NSA access key to get into the White House. Olivia also confided with Rowan about Andrew and Rowan's advice was to kill Andrew. Jake suspects the White House statement on Andrew's death was a cover. Jake might use his position as NSA Director to dig for information on Andrew's death. In fact, Olivia told me Jake and Rowan plotted the hack into the Project Mercury files on former NSA Director Diane Peters' personal computer as a plan for Jake to become NSA Director and setting him on the path for political office."

"I know Jake has become as much as thorn as Rowan with the fixed presidential ticket but him causing trouble as NSA Director with digging around Andrew Nichols' death, you needn't worry. There is no body to provide proof that Andrew was actually murdered. My team and I handled that. Admittedly, we lucked out there was no immediate family who had a vested interest in giving Andrew a proper burial. Obviously, there's no paper trail about Andrew's death other than the statement that was issued by the White House. My advice on dealing with Jake about Andrew's death, Olivia is going to need to be Olivia Pope and shut down Jake and his presumptions."

"I'll share this with Olivia. Especially the part about no body to provide evidence to support the claim Andrew was murdered."

"Good," said Victoria. She then pulled out a folded piece of paper from the leather portfolio she was holding and handed it to Fitz.

"What's this," he asked as took the piece of paper.

"It's the name of a therapist. She is someone the CIA has on retainer to help our agents when they have a completed an extremely challenging mission, if you know what I mean," said Victoria. When Fitz nodded his head to acknowledge he understood what she said, she then added "She's discreet and knows whatever is shared with her will go with her to her grave. Now that we know Olivia still has unresolved issues concerning her kidnapping, she needs help her to deal with it."

"Thank you."

"Your welcome, Fitzgerald. That's what family is for – the kind that is functional and supportive."

Fitz chuckled at Victoria's statement. Even though Victoria was only a distant cousin but she was doing a lot for him.

When Fitz finished his conversation with Victoria, he left the CIA building and got into his unmarked SUV. However, rather than be driven back to the White House, the SUV was taking him to James Madison Hospital to see Olivia. Fitz hadn't been able to talk with Olivia during the day but got the medical update about Oliva from Abby who did speak to her. He also found out from Abby about Olivia's plans to stay in a hotel for a few days as she planned her next steps concerning temporary housing and getting her apartment rebuilt. Abby mentioned in passing to him about wanting to offer her place for Olivia to stay but with Olivia needing Quinn or Charlie to be with her because of Jake, Abby's place wasn't big enough for four people with Leo back in DC. Granted, what Jake was planning to do in order to get Olivia was still being speculated but the fact he was planning something was cause for concern.

As the SUV was making the trip to James Madison Hospital, Fitz thought about Olivia's situation and wondered if he should provide Olivia an invitation to the stay at the Residence as an alternative to staying in a hotel. He knew Olivia was fiercely independent and might interpret the invitation as taking away her independence. However, under the current circumstances, it wouldn't be. She would stay until she made the necessary arrangements. The only difference between her staying in a hotel and her staying in a guest room in the Residence is the financial cost, that is, if she was to stay at the Residence, she wouldn't have to pay for a hotel. Also, if Olivia stayed at the Residence, she wouldn't need to have Quinn or Charlie be with her. She would have ample security while she stayed at the Residence. When Olivia found a temporary home, she would then need to have Quinn and/or Charlie stay with her. Fitz decided he would make the offer even though Olivia would probably say no given her independent streak.

When he walked into Olivia's hospital room, he saw Olivia sitting up in bed and had been watching TV before he entered the room. Quinn had already walked out with his agents after the agents had done their sweep of the room.

Fitz said "Hi" as he sat down on the edge of Olivia's hospital bed.

"Hi," replied back Olivia.

"Abby told me the good news that the doctors are happy you are doing well and should be getting discharged in a couple days."

"Yeah. I'm looking forward to getting out of the hospital scene."

"Abby also told me you are making plans to stay in a hotel for a few days until you get things sorted for a temporary place to live while you get your apartment repaired. If you want, you are welcome to stay at the Residence instead of a hotel while you plan your next steps. You can take one of the guest rooms and you'll be able to do you what you need to do while you are staying at the Residence. Even though I have Karen and Teddy for the time being, I'll make sure you'll have your privacy."

After making his offer, Fitz was taken by surprise when Olivia said "Thanks for offer, Fitz. I would love to stay with you, Karen, and Teddy."


	17. Another Reality Intrusion

**Author's Note:**

Sorry for the long lapse in posting the latest installment to the story. Enjoy!

Many thanks to the readers who have followed and/or favorited the story.

* * *

After Fitz left her hospital room, Olivia felt buoyed with the knowledge she was going to be staying with Fitz, Karen and Teddy at the White House while she dealt with her burnt-out apartment and finding a temporary home while her apartment got repaired. Initially, she didn't know if Fitz was going to extend an offer to stay at the Residence. Olivia sensed Fitz was trying to be respectful of her and not to overstep in his actions when he made his offer. During their conversation about her staying at the Residence, Fitz had been emphatic about her be able to do "her thing" while she was at the White House and his invitation was motivated out of friendship and simply he cared about her. In other words, there was no hidden agenda with invitation. However, Olivia wouldn't have mind if there was a hidden agenda with the invitation. She longed for the dream world Vermont she experienced as she was coming out of her coma to be her real world. If Fitz had a hidden agenda, she would at least know Fitz still saw them as having a future together. Nonetheless, with her staying at the Residence, Olivia could put things in motion to earn Fitz's trust about them being together and Vermont to be their end game. Granted, it wouldn't happen overnight but she was thinking if little steps were taken, she could make it happen.

While Olivia sat in her bed watching TV, Quinn was reclining on the chair bed watching a movie on her laptop. The hospital arranged for them to have a chair which opened up into a bed so Quinn would be more comfortable and not have to sleep upright in a standard sofa chair. They were already stocked with provisions for the night – Charlie had brought them their dinner and an assortment of snacks, which included Olivia's favorite gourmet popcorn. Even though Olivia was no longer on any medication and could drink, she decided to hold off until she got discharged. She was hoping while she stayed at the White House, she and Fitz could share a bottle of a good red from the White House wine supply.

Even though Quinn was watching her movie on her laptop, she couldn't help noticed Olivia's current viewing choice on TV. Quinn knew Olivia didn't want to watch or see any TV coverage about the presidential campaign, regardless if it involved Mellie-Jake or Vargas-Cyrus. Watching the coverage about the presidential election only brought up bad feelings about the election being fixed courtesy of Rowan Pope. To avoid the possibility of seeing coverage about the campaign and/or election and related advertisement, Olivia was choosing to watch "interest-based" channels. At the moment, Olivia was watching with great interest a show about women going through the angst of picking out their wedding gowns. Quinn didn't know if Olivia was watching the show out of amusement or she suddenly developed an interest in wedding gowns.

As Olivia and Quinn watched their respective show and movie, Olivia's cell phone rang. Olivia picked up the phone and saw the caller ID.

"It's Mellie," she said. Rather answering the phone, Olivia let the call go to voice message. Olivia knew it wasn't Mellie's fault that the nomination was fixed and she was partly responsible for the mess Mellie was in, even though it was the brain tumor that claimed her judgment and allowed for it to happen. Olivia was willing to talk to Mellie so long it wasn't about coming back to run the campaign and since she didn't know what was Mellie's motivation for the call, she would have Mellie leave a message and she would decide to call her back or not.

Couple of minutes later, Olivia's phone dinged to let her know she got a voice message from Mellie. However, rather than checking the message immediately, Olivia decided to finish watching her TV program. When the end-of-show credits rolled on the screen, Olivia listened to Mellie's message on speaker so Quinn could hear it as well.

 _ **Liv, it's Mellie. Just calling to see how you were doing. I heard about the fire. I'm sorry. If you want, you can stay at my place even though I won't be back in DC until a few more days…**_

Olivia and Quinn exchanged a glance that read "I don't think so." If that was the substance of Mellie's message, Olivia didn't feel the need to tell Mellie she was going to be staying with Fitz. However, it the next part of Mellie's message which had Olivia taking notice –

 _ **Look Liv, I know you don't want to have anything to do with this campaign. I don't blame you. But you are still the campaign manager on record which includes the formal documents. Until there is a new "official" campaign manager on the record you are still it. I just wanted to you remember that.**_

When Mellie's message ended on that note, Quinn exclaimed "Oh shit, Mellie's right!"

Olivia didn't know if Mellie was telling her this out of concern that things could still come back to bite her even if she had removed herself from the campaign or she was stuck being the campaign manager regardless of what she wanted.

Her father had nothing to gain to be named as the new campaign manager and everything to lose. Her father's intention all along was to be kingmaker behind the scene. If he was named as the new campaign manager, too much attention and scrutiny would be focused on him and he would not want that. Given how dangerous the situation with her father pulling the strings on the campaign, it wasn't right or appropriate for an unsuspecting person to be dragged in as a new manager, which was why Huck and Marcus arranged for Leo to get kicked out. The fact Huck and Marcus was still on the trail with Mellie gave every indication that Olivia Pope was still Senator Mellie Grant's campaign manager to the public and Olivia Pope was just on medical leave from the campaign.

While she could "milked" out her medical leave so she wouldn't have any contact with the campaign but only way for her to truly walk away from the campaign was for her father to be gone so Mellie could find another legitimate campaign manager. Even in the situation of her father gone, Olivia knew in good conscience she couldn't be Mellie's campaign manager with the knowledge that both Mellie and Jake hadn't properly earned their nominations. If Mellie was going to see through this to the end, which included the preparing for the debates against Vargas, Mellie needed to have someone who could work with her and didn't know about the fixed ticket. Olivia knew she would have to resign or step down as Mellie's campaign manager in order for Mellie to get someone new to work with her.

She could potentially resign because of medical reasons – not feeling strong and healthy enough to get to the end to the election. If she resigned because of health issues, that wouldn't hurt Mellie's and Jake's chances of getting elected.

Alternatively, she could get caught up in some incident or scandal that would taint her involvement with the campaign and would have to resign in order to "protect" Mellie's campaign. Olivia also knew it was possible whatever scandal or incident that would require her to resign could impact Mellie's and Jake's electability. If the problem was big enough, it could taint them and the election would swing in favor for Vargas and Cyrus.

Olivia knew before she could resign, her father needed to be out of the picture. Her father being gone was contingent on the CIA successfully implementing their plan to take down her father. During Fitz's visit, he told her the CIA was working on something but it wouldn't happen until the campaign trail ended. However, Olivia knew her father well enough that he would figure out some way to elude the CIA. While it was possible for the CIA to have the upper hand, there was still the question as to when. If the CIA successfully took down her father with only a few weeks left before Election Day, she would still have to remain as the campaign manager since it was so close to Election Day.

"Liv, are you going to tell the President what Mellie just told you?"

"No. There isn't anything Fitz can do." Olivia knew Fitz could do damage control after the fact – once she resigned, Fitz, as the head of the Republican Party could deploy party campaign experts to help Mellie.

Nonetheless, working on optimistic anticipation that her father would be "eliminated" from the picture sooner than later, Olivia needed to have a plan in place to allow her to formally resign as Mellie's campaign manager. It would have to be something that would compromise her role as Mellie's campaign manager enough to warrant her resignation and would allow for a course correction with the election so the political party without the fixed ticket might actually win the election…


	18. Glimmers of Hope

On Olivia's discharge day, Quinn and Charlie picked Olivia up from the hospital and drove her to the White House. They took Olivia directly to East Wing entrance and before she got out of the car, she said "Thanks Quinn, Charlie for picking me and bringing me to the White House. We'll meet tomorrow at 10AM. I'm meeting the insurance rep at my apartment to go over the fire damage to my apartment."

"No problem, Olivia. We'll bring empty boxes with us in case there are some things that can be salvaged and you want to keep," said Quinn.

"Great," said Oliva before she got out of the car. After she got out of the car, Quinn and Charlie drove off with Charlie at the wheel.

When Olivia walked into the East Wing entrance, she saw Karen and Teddy were waiting for her. Teddy ran up to Olivia and wrapped his arms around her legs. He looked up and said "Hi, Lib. I'm sorry you don't have your home."

Teddy's expression of sympathy choked up Olivia. She knelt down to look at Teddy at eye level before saying "Thanks Teddy," while trying to hold back her tears.

Karen then came up to them and said "Hi, Olivia. I'm also sorry about your apartment. Dad and Abby are tied up in a meeting with the Treasury people. That's why they couldn't meet you."

After Olivia rose up, the three of them took the elevator up from the ground floor up to the Residence. Even though Olivia lived at the White House before, Karen and Teddy escorted Olivia to her guest room. When they walked into the room, Olivia saw that her suitcases and bags from the campaign trail trip were in the room.

"Abby brought in your suitcases and bags. Dad didn't know if you wanted to unpack by yourself or wanted to have someone to help you because of the broken arm," said Karen. "If you want, I can help you."

"That would be great," responded Olivia as she set down her handbag on the bed. Karen unfolded the luggage rack that was in the room and set one of the suitcases on top of it. Using her good hand, Olivia unzipped the suitcase and started to remove the clothes that were in it. Karen took the clothes that needed to be hung in the closet rack. She put them on hangers and set them inside the closet while the clothes that could go into the dresser, Teddy helped to put them inside the drawers. Since Teddy wasn't tall enough to put the clothes in the top drawer level, he put them in the drawers that he could reach. Olivia held back from giving her undergarments to Teddy with the intention she would put them away herself.

As the three of them worked together to unpack Olivia's suitcases, Fitz and Abby came into the room. When Teddy saw them, he said proudly "Daddy, Abby, I'm helping Lib unpack."

"I can see," commented Fitz. "Looks like you are doing a good job, son," he said as he ruffled Teddy's hair and giving him a proud smile. He then directed his attention to Olivia and said "I'm sorry I wasn't able to meet you when you arrived."

"It's fine, Fitz. I had a great welcoming committee who also happen to terrific luggage unpackers," said Olivia with a big smile. She then said to Abby "Thanks for bringing my luggage and bags to the White House."

"My pleasure, Liv. I also got the things you asked for," responded Abby as she gestured to the large department store paper shopping bag that was by her remaining unpacked luggage. The shopping bag contained an assortment of short sleeve button pajama tops that Olivia needed to wear for bed to accommodate the problem of the sling arm in a cast that needed to remain immobile.

"Abby and I need to head back downstairs to the Oval. We have another meeting in the next five minutes but I wanted to come up to make sure you were getting settled in. I'll be back up later for lunch, though," said Fitz.

"Ok. We'll see you later."

"Before I forget, someone from IT will come after lunch to get your laptop wired into the Residence secure WIFI system."

"Thanks for arranging that."

After Fitz and Abby left, Olivia with Karen's and Teddy's help, finished unpacking her suitcases. When they finished unpacking, they all exchanged high-fives for a good job done with Teddy laughing heartily.

"Olivia, I'm going to my room to work on my college app essays and personal statements," said Karen before she left Olivia's room.

Olivia then remembered with Mellie busy with the presidential campaign, Fitz had the primary role in helping Karen deal with her college applications. There already had been a discussion before the campaign trail about making college visits. While Karen had a list of schools she definitely wanted to apply to but there were some schools she had an interest in but didn't know if she liked the school well enough to want to submit an application. With Karen being away for part of the summer for the campaign, a small handful of private visits were scheduled for the "question mark" schools. The visits were planned when Karen got back and Fitz would accompany her for the visits. Olivia presumed even with Karen's participation in the campaign trail being cut short because of what happened in Santa Barbara, the schedule of visits would take place when they were originally planned.

Teddy asked Olivia "Lib, can you come and play with me? We can do puzzles and games. And build stuff."

"Sure thing, Teddy," replied Olivia with a smile. Teddy took Olivia's good hand and led her to his play room so they could play together.

An hour and half later, Fitz headed back to the Residence to have lunch with the kids and Olivia. As he was making his trip to the Residence, he reflected on how Olivia appeared to be comfortable about staying at the Residence upon her arrival. He didn't know if Olivia would start to feel uneasy when the reality of staying with him and the kids hit her. If Olivia did get uncomfortable and needed to check into a hotel, he knew it was Olivia needing her space.

When he arrived at the Residence, he knocked on Karen's open bedroom door to let her know lunch was being brought to the family dining room in the Residence.

"Ok. I'll set the table," said Karen.

"And I'll go get Teddy and Olivia."

Fitz stood outside Teddy's playroom and saw Teddy and Olivia playing together on the floor. He hadn't expected to find Teddy and Olivia together. He thought Olivia would be in her room resting while Teddy would be playing by himself in the playroom or under the supervision of his nanny Jenn. Fitz knew from his personal experience that playing with a 4-year-old could be exhausting and Olivia was still technically recovering from her brain surgeries and working on getting her energy and strength back.

When Fitz came into the room, Teddy looked up and said "Hi, Daddy!" as he got up to go to him so Fitz could pick him up.

"What are the two of you doing?" asked Fitz while he held Teddy up next to him.

"Lib and me…"

"Lib and I" said Fitz to correct Teddy's grammar.

Teddy repeated "Lib and I" and completed his sentence with "Are building a Lego village. I'm calling it Teddyville. Lib, show Daddy the President of Teddyville."

Olivia picked up a male Fisher-Price toy figure with dark brown hair and held it up to show Fitz. "President Fitzgerald Grant III of the United States meet President Teddy Grant of Teddyville." Teddy was giggling uncontrollably when he heard Olivia called the toy figure President Teddy Grant.

Fitz looked at Teddy and gave him a playful smile as he asked "You want to be president, Teddy?"

"Only in make believe, Daddy. Being president in real life is hard."

"I'm glad you know being a real-life president is hard work," said Fitz with another smile. "It's lunch time. You and Olivia can continue building Teddyville after lunch. You need to go wash your hands before we eat," he said as he set Teddy down on the floor.

"Ok, Daddy." Teddy then left the room to go to the bathroom to wash his hands. While he was gone, Olivia was trying to get off the floor with her good arm and hand but was struggling. Fitz noticed Olivia struggling and went to help her.

"Let me help you up, Livie," he said.

"Thanks," said Olivia as she held onto him and wrapped her good arm around him. However, rather than letting him go once she was up from the floor, she just held onto him. As she held him, Fitz instinctively wrapped his arms around Olivia even though he knew he should refrain from doing it. From the time they were in Boulder to being back in DC, Fitz focused his role in Olivia's life as being a friend, protector, caregiver, and supporter in no particular order. Even though he held her a number of times during this time period, he did it to comfort Olivia rather than it being a romantic gesture. As much he loved Olivia, the roles as boyfriend and lover weren't in the picture and the way he was holding her reflected those roles. Even though they weren't alienated from each other, they weren't a reconciled couple either.

Just as Fitz was about to release Olivia from his embrace, the two of them looked into each other eyes and Fitz could feel desire rising between them. While he expected to feel sexual desire on his part but to feel it emanate from Olivia took him by surprise. Fitz thought Olivia no longer had those feelings for him. Mellie's diatribe at the Republican Party convention, in particular, her comments about Olivia, hit the nail on the coffin for him that there was no "us" for them and Olivia was happy to be free of him as the woman in his life. Her decision to have an abortion was part of her freeing herself from him. Had they had children together, they would be connected.

When Teddy came running into room, the two of them separated from each other and turned their attention to him.

"Daddy, I washed my hands," he said proudly as he held up his clean hands for everyone to see.

"Good job, son."

Teddy took one of Fitz's hands and said "Come on, Daddy. Let's go eat. I'm hungry."

"Ok," said Fitz with a big smile as he looked down at his young son.

Teddy then turned his attention to Olivia and held out his other hand to her so she would hold it. After she took his hand, the three of them walked together to the family dining room in the Residence. The three of walking together in such a "family" like manner twisted Fitz's heart. Before their break-up, he always envisioned he and Olivia together and holding their children's hands when they went out for walks or family outings. The act of him and her each holding Teddy's hands as they walked to the dining room was a reminder of the dream he had about them being a couple and having a family together. However, knowing about Olivia's abortion made it hard for him to enjoy the moment.

When they arrived at the family dining room, Karen had set the table and was waiting for them. In the middle of the dining table was a serving platter covered with grilled chicken, a large bowl filled with mixed salad greens and vegetables, and a small basket of freshly baked bread rolls. There was also a cruet of a vinaigrette salad dressing for the salad. Along with the adult fare of grilled chicken with salad, there was an open face grilled cheese sandwich for Teddy.

Everyone took a seat at the table with Fitz sitting at the head of the table and Teddy in a booster seat next to him while Olivia sat on the right side of the table and Karen on the left side. To make the meal more intimate, they were sitting together on one end of the table, rather than having Olivia and Karen sitting the middle of the table. Fitz cut up Teddy's grilled cheese sandwich into smaller pieces so Teddy could pick up the pieces with his fingers. After placing the cut-up grilled cheese sandwich in front of Teddy, Fitz plated the chicken while Karen served the salad with tongs. Since Olivia only had one good hand, she accepted Fitz's offer to cut up her chicken for her. Even though Teddy had his grilled cheese sandwich, Fitz served some cut up chicken and salad onto a small child's plate for Teddy to try.

Olivia noted a different dynamic in the sit-down meal she was having with Fitz as he ate with Karen and Teddy which was in contrast to the ones she experienced when Mellie ate with the kids while they were on the campaign trail. Most of the time, she and Mellie were out eating with campaign donors and supporters. On the rare occasion when Mellie was available to eat with Karen and Teddy, she was still focused on talking about the campaign while asking Karen and Teddy in passing how their day was and what they did. With Fitz, he completely focused his attention on Karen and Teddy.

"Karen, how are the apps going?"

"Ok, Dad," replied Karen after swallowing the food in her mouth. "I was thinking for the question about father's occupation, how would you feel if I said "long-standing public servant looking forward to being able to drive again" as the answer?"

Fitz chuckled at Karen's comment before saying "I think "Congress's lame duck" might be the more appropriate answer.

"That's too self-deprecating and too obvious. I was thinking referring you as a "long-standing public servant" would make things neutral in case someone on the admissions committee had a problem with your politics. The part of about you looking forward to driving again is supposed to poke fun that the most powerful man in the world, the leader of the free world isn't allowed to drive."

Fitz chuckled as he said "That's not exactly true. I can reach the White House gates behind the wheel of a car but the security guard won't let me out." Karen then joined in the laughter.

As Olivia watched and listened to Fitz and Karen interacted with each other, she reflected her own interactions with her father lacked the joking light-heartedness that was evident between Fitz and Karen. Olivia also knew Fitz didn't see his daughter as a vehicle to obtain power and he loved her unconditionally. When they were dealing with Karen's sex video scandal, while Fitz had been disappointed with Karen's behavior, he never stopped loving her, focused on protecting her, and felt the guilt of not being a good enough father to prevent the incident from happening in the first place. Olivia knew Fitz had expectations for Karen but his expectations focused on Karen doing her best in life which wasn't based on her being powerful or having power. Should Karen accomplished things in life that would put her in a position of power, Fitz wouldn't love her more and wouldn't be more proud of her for it.

When Teddy noticed his big sister finished talking, he said "Daddy, I start pre-K soon."

"I know. Are you excited?"

"Yeah. Are you and Mommy taking me to school?"

"Yes, we are."

"Lib, are you coming?

Olivia remembered she and Mellie negotiated with Fitz for both he and Mellie to be taking Teddy to his first day of pre-K and there would be a photo-op of them taking Teddy to school. She was going to be there to make sure the photo-op went smoothly. Even though she "withdrew" herself from the campaign, she was still officially Mellie's campaign manager even though her father was taking the active role in running it behind the scenes now. She didn't know if the photo op will still take place. She and her father disagreed on the pre-K photo-op. Her father thought the idea doing a photo-op of Teddy with his parents on his first day of pre-K was gimmicky. Her father also thought it was hypocritical to portray Senator Mellie Grant as the "mommy" type since she wasn't. In addition, her father thought portraying Mellie as the "mommy" type would weaken Mellie rather than humanize her.

Should her father decide to proceed with the photo-op, she wouldn't need to be there because of her medical leave which she was using to allow her to maintain her distance from the campaign.

"No. I still need time to get well from being sick, Teddy."

"Ok," said Teddy. Teddy's attention went back to Fitz to ask "Daddy, can I have a Minion backpack and lunch box for school, please?"

"You'll get one, son. I promise," replied Fitz. As POTUS, one of the things he couldn't do like any other father was to take his pre-schooler son to buy a backpack and a lunch box. If he wanted to take Teddy to the local mall to shop for school items, the mall would have to be shut down while they shopped. To avoid inconveniencing shoppers with a mall shut down, Teddy would have to get his backpack and lunchbox through Abby making the arrangements within White House bureaucracy. Once he was out of office, he could do these simple basic things as a father. However, at least, as a perk for being POTUS, if he wanted a retail item, he was able to get it. Which meant Teddy could conceivably have a choice of Minion backpacks and lunchboxes to choose from.

When they were done eating, Karen took the leftovers into the family kitchen in the Residence and packed them away in food storage containers and set them in the refrigerator, while Fitz and Olivia cleared off the table and put the used plates, flatware, glass ware into the dishwasher. Since the dishwasher wasn't full yet, they didn't run the dishwasher. The soiled cloth napkins were put in a bin for the housekeeping staff to take for laundering.

After they walked out of the family dining room, they saw Abby and a young man in his 20s walking towards them. Abby introduced the young man to Fitz and Olivia as Caleb from the IT team who was there to connect Olivia's laptop to the Residence WIFI system.

"Caleb, thank you for coming up to help us," said Fitz.

"No problem, Mr. President."

"I'll bring my laptop to you, Caleb." Olivia remembered from her days working and living at the White House that level of access to the Residence by White House staff varied. Since Caleb needed Abby to bring him up, it meant Caleb had limited access and wasn't allowed to wander around the space.

While Olivia went to get her laptop from her room, Karen excused herself and returned to her room.

Abby looked at Fitz and said "The Education Secretary and her team will be arriving soon for our meeting. I'll be right down after Caleb gets Olivia's computer connected."

"Sure thing," said Fitz. Before Fitz headed back down to the Oval, Teddy's nanny Jenn walked to the small assembled group and asked Fitz if she should take Teddy out to the garden for him to play in his jungle gym. Even though Fitz was POTUS and the security of his children was the upmost importance to him, he also didn't want Karen and Teddy to be prisoners in the White House. While normal children would be able to go to the local public park to play, his son wasn't able to. However, not to deprive Teddy of experience of playing outdoors, a jungle gym had been sent up in a discreet part of the garden so the gym wouldn't be an eye sore for visitors and to allow Teddy to play without the prying eyes of photographers.

When Teddy heard his nanny ask if she could take him outside to play he immediately said "Daddy, I want to play outside." He then asked with pleading eyes "Please?"

"Ok," replied Fitz with a loving grin towards his son.

Before Teddy took off with Jenn, he said to Fitz "Daddy, tell Lib I went with Jenn to play outside and we can build Teddyville when I come back."

"I will."

Olivia returned with laptop and handed it over to Caleb. Abby then lead Caleb to the living room so he could sit down and set up the connection.

"Liv, I'm heading back downstairs to the Oval. Jenn took Teddy to play outside but he said the two of you can work on Teddyville when he gets back."

"All right. I'll see you later."

After Fitz left, Olivia went to the living room. When she got there, Caleb finished setting the connection between Olivia's laptop and Residence WIFI system. After he closed the laptop cover, he handed the laptop back to Olivia. He also gave Olivia a small sealed envelope which contained her private password so she could connect into the system should she need to.

"Thanks, Caleb," said Olivia.

"My pleasure, Ms. Pope. Should you have any problems, just let Abby know."

"I will."

Before Abby and Caleb left the living room, Abby whispered to Olivia "Let's talk when everything settles down."

Olivia nodded her head. She was looking forward to spending time with Abby talking and having a drink with her like the old days. With her staying at the White House, they would probably meet up in Abby's office after work hours or Abby could come up to her guest room to hang out after work.

When Abby and Caleb left the living room, Olivia returned to her guest room and set down her laptop on top of the desk in the room. However, rather than getting on her laptop to start to look at temporary housing options, Olivia's attention was focused on doing something else.

Couple of hours later, Fitz was in the Oval Office looking out the window that faced the White House lawn while taking a break from reading briefing reports. As he looked out the window, his thoughts drifted to what transpired between him and Olivia in Teddy's playroom.

Fitz could still feel the sexual energy that coursed between them. He hadn't thought anything physical would happen between them while Olivia stayed at the Residence and he was still working on that thought. As much he longed to have Olivia in his arms kissing her and making passionate love to her, Fitz knew he couldn't go down that road unless they were truly on the path to reconciliation. A "friends with benefits" arrangement with Olivia wouldn't work for him because it wouldn't be enough for him. Fitz knew he would have to maintain his resolve to not let his physical needs to dictate the situation. If Olivia's interest was strictly for sexual needs, he would have to find the strength to say "no" to her but to also let her know why he is saying no.

For him, if they were to get back together, it would have to be for good with Olivia knowing it was what she wanted – she wanted them to be a couple. If they did reconcile, they would have to have a discussion about their expectations for their relationship. Before, he presumed they both wanted the same things such as a family. While he still wanted to have children with Olivia but the abortion incident alerted him to the possibility that Olivia didn't want children.

Fitz didn't know if Olivia's decision to have the abortion was triggered by the brain tumor or she didn't want to have the baby. During their time in Boulder and while Olivia was in the hospital when they got back to DC, Fitz had deliberately avoided any discussion about the abortion. His avoidance was an act of emotional and psychological self-preservation should the truth be that Olivia had the abortion because she didn't want to have children with him specifically. Since they were no longer a couple and he hadn't thought reconciliation was possible for them, Fitz didn't think there was any value in knowing Olivia's reason for having the abortion, especially if her reason pertained to him specifically. If the reason was him, it would only add to the hurt and pain he felt about Olivia having the abortion. Even though he told Olivia he respected her choice of not having the baby, it didn't make it hurt any less. However, if Olivia was to offer a glimmer of hope for an "us" and Vermont, they would have to have a conversation about the abortion and the reason for her choice.

If Olivia's decision was because in her mind it had been a bad time for them to have baby, then Olivia might still want to have children. However, if Olivia didn't want the baby because she didn't want children at all, he would have to accept the fact the two of them wouldn't have a family as a couple. Olivia not wanting to have children wouldn't be fatal to their relationship but he needed to know so they weren't working with conflicting expectations.

Fitz returned his attention to here and now when Charlotte entered the Oval Office and said "Mr. President, Karen is calling from the Residence."

"Thanks, Charlotte," said Fitz before Charlotte exited the Oval and as he picked up the handset off his desk phone. "What's up, sweetheart?"

"Dad, is Olivia with you in the Oval? Teddy got back from playing outside and went to her room to look for her but she wasn't there. We checked around the Residence but we can't find her."

"She's not here. I'll come upstairs," said Fitz before putting the handset back on the phone. He then let Charlotte know he was going up to the Residence. As he was taking the elevator up to the Residence level, he wondered where Olivia might be. Had Olivia secretly left the White House with her packed suitcases and bags, Karen would have told him Olivia's room was empty. While Fitz knew it was possible for Olivia to secretly leave the White House and checked herself into a hotel during the past couple of hours and would ask for her things to be delivered to her at the hotel but he didn't think that was a real possibility.

When he got off the elevator at the Residence level, he realized he should have checked Abby's office to see Olivia was with Abby. Even though it was still work hours, it was possible Olivia popped in on Abby for a short visit and ended staying longer than expected. He saw Karen and Teddy standing in the hallway with Karen looking perplexed while Teddy looking disappointed.

"Daddy, Lib is not here. I want her to help me build Teddyville," said Teddy.

"I'm sure she is somewhere in the White House. She might be with Abby."

"Olivia didn't say anything to me about needing to leave the White House, Dad. So, she should be somewhere in the White House," commented Karen.

Fitz had a "duh" moment and was silently kicking himself mentally for not doing the obvious to find out where Olivia was. For a man who graduated summa cum laude from Yale undergrad with a Harvard Law degree and an Oxford Rhodes Scholar PhD, he could be "dumb" at times. He pulled out his cell phone from the inner pocket of his suit blazer and called Olivia. A moment later Fitz heard Olivia say "Hi, Fitz."

"Liv, where are you? Teddy is looking for you so the two of you can work on building Teddyville."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know how much time passed. I'm in the White House kitchen."

When Fitz heard Olivia say "White House kitchen," his curiosity automatically piqued. Olivia Pope didn't cook. "What are you doing in the White House kitchen, Liv?"

"I'm with the White House pastry chef. He is teaching me how to make strawberry jam."


	19. A Moment of WH Domesticity

**Author's Note:**

Cooking is one of my hobbies so I channeled it in this installment.

In Chapter 4, "Heading Home – Not", I alluded to the possibility of Olivia experiencing emotional and psychological changes as a result of having brain tumor removed. Olivia's interest in domestic things could be such a change.

* * *

When Fitz heard Olivia say she was in the White House kitchen getting a lesson in jam making from White House Michelin-star pastry chef Giles Bennett, he had to see it for himself. After telling Karen and Teddy where Olivia was, the three of them headed to the White House kitchen to watch Olivia learn to make jam.

Since the White House kitchen was in a lull moment because there were no receptions or dinners taking place for the remainder of the day, Fitz was able to walk into the kitchen without drawing too much attention. He vaguely remembered being told the White House pastry team had a separate preparation section from the cooking team and he presumed Olivia was getting her lesson in the pastry preparation section. Fitz and the kids navigated through the kitchen work tables and stoves to get to the pastry preparation section. Sure enough, when they arrived in the pastry prep section they saw Olivia standing next to Chef Giles in front of a lit stove. Olivia, using her good hand, was stirring a pot while she was getting instruction from Chef Giles.

When Chef Giles turned his head, he saw Fitz, Karen and Teddy. "Mr. President, what a surprise. Are you here to observe Ms. Pope make her first jar of strawberry jam?"

"No need to observe. I know she is in good hands."

"Thank you, Mr. President. I can assure you that you will have fresh strawberry jam with your breakfast toast tomorrow morning."

"I look forward to it," said Fitz with a big smile. "Come on, kids, we should leave Olivia to work with Chef Giles."

"Daddy, I want to stay and watch Lib make jam," said Teddy. "Please?"

"Well, it's not for me to decide. Liv, Chef Giles, is it all right for Teddy to be in the kitchen for your jam making lesson?"

"It's fine with me," replied Olivia.

"Teddy, I will let you stay here in the kitchen with us. But you have to promise you will listen to our instructions so you will stay safe in the kitchen," said Chef Giles in a kind but firm voice.

"I promise."

"I'll get you a stool for you to sit on so you can see what is happening. You'll be able to watch Ms. Pope without getting too close to the stove." Chef Giles then turned his attention to Karen and asked "Karen, would like to stay and watch as well?"

"I would like, too," replied Karen eagerly.

With Karen and Teddy settled in the kitchen watching Olivia's jam making lesson with Chef Giles, Fitz headed back to the Oval to resume reading his briefing reports. As soon as he sat down in his chair behind the Resolute Desk, Abby entered into the Oval Office.

"Everything all right, Fitz?" asked Abby in a concerned voice. "I stopped by earlier but Charlotte told me you needed to go up to the Residence."

"Things are fine. The kids couldn't find Olivia but we managed to track her down." Fitz wasn't going to disclose to Abby as to where he and the kids found Olivia and what she was doing. He didn't know if Olivia ever confided in Abby about Vermont and jam.

When Abby initially heard Fitz mention Karen and Teddy not being able to find Olivia, Abby's felt a wave of concern wash over her with the thought that Olivia secretly ducked out of the White House and checked into a hotel. Although Olivia gave every indication to her when they talked while Olivia was still in the hospital that she looked forward to staying at the Residence while she figured things out, Abby also knew if the arrangement of Olivia staying at the White House got too close for comfort, especially when it came being around Fitz, Olivia might feel the need to leave.

"Good," said Abby with a gentle smile. Abby did secretly believed Olivia staying at the White House would be good for her and hoped Olivia would work through her feelings so she would stay as long she needed to. "The reason why I stopped by earlier was to prepare the agenda for tomorrow's team meeting." With Fitz having a limited remaining time in office, the White House was trying to get as much done. To maximize its productivity, both Fitz's Oval Office and Susan's Office of Vice President were having regularly scheduled "team" meetings to discuss and prioritize activities.

"Good idea. Let's call David to have him join us," said Fitz as he picked the handset on his desk phone and began to call David's office number.

After having the agenda preparation meeting with Abby and David, Fitz returned to reading his briefing reports. Some time passed before he looked at the clock on his desk and saw it was after 5PM. Fitz made it a point to have dinner before 7PM when Teddy stayed with him so he would have time with Teddy before getting Teddy into bed before 9PM. Rather than continuing to read the briefing reports in the Oval, Fitz decided he would take them upstairs to Residence to read. He had the choice of either reading them in his bedroom or in the private study that was located in the Residence. He informed Charlotte that he was heading up to the Residence to finish reading the briefing reports and if he was needed to call him up at the Residence.

Fitz took the remaining briefing reports and carried them with him as he left the Oval to take the elevator up to the Residence. He dropped off the briefing reports in his bedroom before he went to look for Olivia and the kids. He presumed Olivia and Teddy were in Teddy's playroom building Teddyville while Karen was in her bedroom working on her college applications. However, he didn't find them in the Residence. He wondered if the three of them were still in the White House kitchen for Olivia's jam making lesson. While Fitz didn't know much about jam making but he didn't think it would take that long to make it unless they were making a lot of it. As much as Fitz enjoyed jam and looked forward to tasting Olivia's homemade strawberry jam, the very thought they could be swamped with an oversupply of jam did run a slight shiver down his back – after all, there was only so much jam a person could eat.

As he made the trip to the White House kitchen, Fitz was thinking if they were dealing with an oversupply of homemade jam, he might have to encourage Olivia to give some jars away so to keep the jam situation manageable. When Fitz entered the White House kitchen, as he was about to walk over the pastry kitchen preparation section, he saw Olivia and the kids in the main kitchen preparation section standing in front of prep table doing food prep under the eye of a White House assistant or sous chef. He walked over the table where they working and silently observed the scene.

When assistant chef Michelle Wilkins turned her head and saw Fitz, she immediately straightened up to attention and said "Mr. President."

"Relax, Michelle," said Fitz with a reassuring smile. He then turned his attention to Olivia and the kids and asked "So, what's going here?"

"We're making dinner, Daddy. My favorite. Meatloaf. Mashed potatoes. Peas and carrots," replied Teddy proudly while sitting on top of a stool shelling peas into a bowl for the peas and carrots.

"When I saw Michelle start dinner prep, I asked if I could stay and watch to get some pointers. The kids wanted to stay as well," said Olivia as she added egg, oatmeal, onion, salt and pepper to a ground meat mixture.

While Olivia's task was making the meatloaf and Teddy's was shelling green peas, Karen was peeling potatoes for the mashed potatoes. Fitz saw there was a small pile of washed carrots that needed to peeled and sliced. Rather than simply give an encouraging comment for their actions and returning to the Residence to read, Fitz took off his suit blazer, draped it over another clean empty food preparation table and rolled up his shirt sleeves. He walked over the sink and washed his hands. After drying his hands, he took a station next to Karen and asked Michelle "Can I have vegetable peeler, please?"

Michelle was initially taken aback with Fitz's request. Having POTUS come into the White House kitchen doing food prep was something unexpected for her, even though it was dinner for the First Family plus house guest. However, she had heard through the White House kitchen staff grapevine about the Grant "First Family" and their culinary abilities and talents was that President Fitzgerald Grant III could cook and liked to cook but didn't have time for obvious reasons while Former First Lady Mellie Grant hated to cook and Former First Girlfriend Olivia Pope didn't cook. In light of what she knew, Michelle thought better not to discourage Fitz and instead went to retrieve a vegetable peeler for Fitz so he could peel the carrots.

While Fitz peeled the carrots, Karen finished peeling the potatoes. After clearing away the potato peels, Michelle brought over a cutting board and knife for Karen so she could cut the potatoes into large chunks for cooking as part of the preparation for making the mashed potatoes. When Karen was done cutting up the potatoes, Michelle took the potatoes and placed them into a steamer basket. Karen noticed Michelle using a steamer basket to cook the potatoes. "I thought you were supposed to boil the potatoes to make mashed potatoes."

"You could boil them but I prefer to steam the potatoes. When you boil potatoes, extra moisture gets into the potatoes and affects the flavor of the mashed potatoes in the end. It is better to have the potatoes to be less moist so it can absorb the dairy and butter so the mashed potatoes can have better flavor," explained Michelle as she set the steamer basket of cut up potatoes into steamer pot filled with boiling water and covered the pot. Michelle then got a saucepan and went over to the refrigerator to pour milk into it and added a half of stick of butter in it. She set the saucepan over a stove top burner and turned on a low flame to melt the butter and milk together.

When Michelle saw Olivia was done mixing the meatloaf mixture, she brought over a loaf pan to Olivia's station. Since Olivia had only one good hand, Michelle transferred the mixture from the bowl into the pan for Olivia. After the transfer, Michelle instructed Olivia to pat down the mixture evenly in the pan. When Olivia finished doing that, Michelle then told Olivia it was time to brush the glaze on top of the meatloaf. Using a pastry brush, Olivia brushed the glaze of ketchup, brown sugar, and mustard she made earlier on top of the meatloaf. After glazing the meatloaf, Michelle took the loaf pan and set it in the pre-heated oven for baking. Since the White House kitchen had professional convection ovens, the baking time for the meatloaf would be reduced in comparison to the standard home kitchen oven. Michelle then checked on the butter-milk mixture on the stove and adjusted the flame even lower so to keep the mixture warm.

"I'm finished," Teddy said proudly when his completed his task of shelling the peas.

"Good job, Teddy. Once your father is done preparing the carrots, we can make the peas and carrots," said Michelle as took the bowl of shelled peas. The pile of shelled pods that were in front of Teddy was moved into the bowl that originally had the pea pods so the shelled pods could be disposed of.

Since everyone else finished their designated tasks, Fitz knew he needed to move on prepping the carrots as he quickly peeled through the remaining carrots he had. When Michelle saw Fitz was almost done peeling the carrots, she already had a cutting board and chef knife ready for Fitz to slice the carrots. Fitz sliced the carrots into quarter inch discs so the carrots wouldn't take too long to cook. After Fitz was done slicing the carrots, he transferred them from the cutting board into an empty bowl provided to him.

"Michelle, do you mind if I cook the peas and carrots?" asked Fitz.

"No. It would be an honor to watch you, sir."

"I don't think cooking peas and carrots is a great culinary feat."

"It doesn't matter. Having the President of the United States cook in the White House kitchen is an honor. What is your method of preparation, sir?"

"Sauté. I hate boiled vegetables."

"Oil or butter, sir?"

"I do a mixture. Butter gives flavor while the oil makes it healthier."

"Daddy, are you going to cook for us?"

"I am."

"I want to watch you, Daddy."

"Ok but remember you can't to be close to the stove," said Fitz. Karen set a stool close enough to the stove so Teddy could see what Fitz was doing but keeping enough distance from the heat. Karen then helped Teddy onto the stool. Olivia and Karen then gathered around the stove to watch Fitz make peas and carrots for their meatloaf dinner.

Fitz moved over to the stove while Michelle retrieved a frying pan and cooking spoon. After setting down the frying pan onto of the burner and the spoon on the stove counter, Michelle went to the refrigerator to get some butter. When she returned with the butter, she turned on the stove burner to get the pan hot. When the pan got hot, Fitz drizzled some olive oil from an oil dispenser and then added some butter to the pan. Once the butter melted with the oil, Fitz then added the sliced carrots and sprinkled some salt and pepper. As he was tossing the carrots in the pan, he said to Michelle "I need some water…"

Michelle took a small measuring cup and filled it with some hot water from the special hot water line that was set up in the kitchen specifically used for cooking. She passed the water to Fitz so he could pour it over the carrots.

"The water helps to steam the carrots so they will cook faster," explained Fitz. Michelle then passed a frying pan lid so Fitz could cover the carrots to allow the carrots to cook. While the carrots cooked, Michelle took out the steamed potatoes out of the steamer pot and dumped the potatoes into a large mixing bowl. "Karen, do you want to finish making the mashed potatoes?"

"Sure."

"Grab the bowl of potatoes while I get the butter-milk mixture from the stove." Karen, holding the bowl of steamed potatoes and Michelle carrying the saucepan filled with the warm liquid butter-milk mixture moved over to a mixing station. After Michelle set down the saucepan on a counter top, she took the bowl of potatoes and attached it to large stand mixer with a paddle hook. She lowered the paddle hook into the potatoes and turned on the mixer. As the paddle hook broke up the potatoes, Michelle instructed Karen to carefully and slowly pour in the melted butter-milk mixture. "As you do this, you need to watch what is happening with the potatoes. You want to make sure the liquid is combining with the potatoes but you also need to be careful not to make the potatoes too runny. That's why you need to add the liquid slowly so to make sure you have enough liquid but not too much."

Michelle stopped the mixer when they thought the potatoes got to the right consistency. She then went to get some spoons for them to taste. "Teddy, do you want to taste the potatoes. To make sure we got it, right?"

"Ok," replied Teddy happily. Fitz helped Teddy off the stool and he walked over to mixing station where Michelle and Karen were. Michelle scooped some mashed potatoes onto a spoon and handed it Teddy to eat. After sampling the potatoes, he said out loud "Yummy! Good job!"

After getting Teddy's seal of approval for the potatoes, Michelle transferred the mashed potatoes from the mixing bowl into a serving bowl. She then put the bowl of mashed potatoes into a warming oven to keep the potatoes warm as the other components of the dinner were still being prepared.

Karen and Teddy went to back to stove to watch their father finish cooking the peas and carrots. To test if the carrots were done, Michelle handed a clean spoon for Fitz to fish out a piece of carrot to taste. After tasting the carrot which had the right crisp-tenderness texture, Fitz added the shelled peas into the pan and gently tossed the peas with the carrots. He added some more water to the pan, tossed the peas and carrots again, and covered the pan with the lid. While the peas and carrots were in the final stages of cooking, Fitz asked Michelle "Is there any fresh dill available?"

"Yes.." Michelle went to the refrigerator and pulled out a few sprays of fresh dill. She chopped up the fresh dill, placed it in a small prep bowl and handed the bowl to Fitz.

When Fitz removed the lid from the pan, he saw the green peas turned into a bright green color and using another clean spoon, he scooped some to taste. When he tasted the tender sweetness of the peas in his mouth, he knew the peas and carrots were done. He turned off the flame and moved the pan over to a cold burner. Fitz then added the fresh dill to the pan and stirred the dill into the peas and carrots. Michelle gave Fitz a serving bowl for him to transfer the peas and carrots into. Michelle took the bowl of peas and carrots and placed it in the warming oven.

"Good job, Mr. President."

"We'll see. I have to pass the test with my harshest critics," said Fitz in good humor as he gestured to Olivia and the kids.

"Daddy, Lib, what's for dessert?" asked Teddy. Both Fitz and Olivia chuckled at Teddy's question. For most children, dessert was the most important part of dinner.

"I don't know. What would you like for dessert, Teddy?" asked Olivia.

For a four-year-old boy, too many choices ran through Teddy's mind and he didn't know what he really wanted. As Teddy contemplated all the endless choices in his young mind, Michelle offered a suggestion. She knew since Olivia was testing her cooking skills, a simple uncomplicated dessert that yield impressive results would be good choice for her. "How about hot fudge pudding cake with vanilla ice cream on the side?"

When Teddy heard cake, ice cream, and fudge, his mouth began to water. "Yeah!"

"Olivia, we can prep dessert here in the White House kitchen and you can bring the pan upstairs to bake in the Residence kitchen. You can put it the oven to bake while having dinner. By the time you are done with dinner, the cake will be done. We can pack up a small tub of vanilla ice cream for the server to bring up when he brings up the dinner."

Michelle went about gathering the necessary ingredients for the hot fudge pudding cake and set them on the counter. She also got a square cake pan, a small mixing bowl, measuring cups and spoons, and a mixing spoon.

"The great thing about this dessert is that you can mix the ingredients for the batter directly in the baking pan if you want," explained Michelle as she instructed Olivia on the proper measurements of the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and salt and dumped them into the baking pan. While Olivia mixed the ingredients in the pan with the spoon, Michelle melted some butter which she had Olivia add into the pan along with milk and vanilla. Olivia then stirred the entire batter mixture to make sure the dry and wet ingredients were combined thoroughly. Once the batter was done, Michelle instructed Olivia on measuring out the regular sugar, brown sugar, and cocoa powder and combining them together in a bowl. After preparing the cocoa-sugar mixture, Michelle had Olivia using a spoon to sprinkle the mixture on top of the cake batter in the pan.

"Normally, after this step, you would be covering the top of the pan with boiling water right before you put in the pan in the oven. However, you will do this upstairs right before you are about to sit down for dinner," explained Michelle. Michelle gave Olivia instructions on preheating the oven to the right temperature before putting the pan into the oven and also told Olivia not to mix the boiling water into the batter or the hot fudge "layer" won't set up properly during baking.

While Olivia knew she wouldn't forget the part of boiling water and not mixing the boiling water into the batter, she hoped she would remember to preheat the oven before putting the pan into the oven, or at least Fitz or Karen would help to remind her.

"The meatloaf should be ready in another 30 minutes," said Michelle. "I hope everyone will enjoy tonight's meal."

"We will," said Fitz.

"And thank you for helping me to navigate my way around the kitchen," added Olivia as she took the baking pan with her good hand from Michelle so she could bring it upstairs to the Residence kitchen to bake.

"No problem, Olivia. You and the kids are welcome to get pointers from the kitchen staff. If you want, you can come back tomorrow. Tomorrow's dinner menu is chicken enchiladas, which I believe is one of Karen's favorite." With Karen and Teddy staying with him, Fitz arranged with the White House kitchen to have their favorite dinner meals and dishes prepared.

"I would like to come back tomorrow," said Karen. "I should learn how to make some of my favorite dishes since I will be going away to college soon and I might not like what food service is serving in the dining hall or cafeteria."

As Olivia, Fitz, Karen, and Teddy headed out of the White House kitchen, Fitz grabbed his suit blazer from the food prep table while Karen took the jar of Olivia's homemade strawberry jam that was also on the food prep table. While they were in elevator heading up to the Residence, Karen held up the jar of strawberry jam and showed it to Fitz. "Olivia's first jar of homemade strawberry jam and it taste great, Dad."

"Yeah, Daddy. I'm going to have a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich tomorrow," declared Teddy.

"I look forward to having some with my toast for breakfast tomorrow morning," said Fitz.

After they got off the elevator at the Residence level, they all headed into the kitchen. As Olivia set the baking pan on the kitchen counter, Fitz went over to the oven and programmed it to start preheating in 25 minutes. "I discovered the oven has a timer preheating feature. You can set the oven to start preheating when you want. When the timer goes off, it means the oven has been preheated and you can put the cake in the oven."

"Thanks, Fitz. I was worried I was going to forget to preheat the oven."

Karen placed the jar of strawberry jam also on the counter and said "I'll set the dinner table in 20 minutes."

"I want to help you, Karen," declared Teddy.

"Sure thing, Teddy."

When a member of the White House kitchen serving staff brought up the meatloaf, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots, and the small tub of vanilla ice cream, Olivia knew it was time for the cake to go into the oven for baking. After Fitz put the small tub of vanilla ice cream in the freezer, he helped Olivia get the hot fudge pudding cake ready for the oven. The light indicating the oven was preheated was on so Olivia knew the oven was ready for baking the cake.

After boiling some water in a kettle, Olivia measured out the amount of boiling water she needed with a measuring cup and then carefully poured the boiling water over the sugar-cocoa mixture. After Olivia was done, Fitz lifted the baking pan with both hands while Olivia opened the oven door so Fitz could put the baking pan in. Fitz set the timer on his cell phone on so they could check on the cake to make sure it was done.

Once they were done getting the cake into the oven, Olivia and Fitz joined Karen and Teddy in the dining room to have their dinner. Karen and Teddy were already seated at the table and looking forward to having their dinner. After Olivia and Fitz sat down in their respective seats, Fitz sliced up the meat loaf and plated the meat loaf slices while Karen passed the plates around the table. Fitz cut up Teddy's meat loaf slice into small pieces for him to pierce onto his child's fork. When everyone had a plate in front of them, the bowls of mashed potatoes and peas and carrots were passed. Fitz scooped potatoes and peas and carrots for both Teddy and Olivia, as well as for himself.

"Meat loaf taste good, Lib" said Teddy after eating a piece of meat loaf. He then sampled the peas and carrots and said "Daddy makes good peas and carrots." Both Olivia and Fitz were happy that their culinary efforts met Teddy's approval.

Meanwhile, as the First Family and their house guest Olivia Pope enjoyed their simple dinner, each other's company and a moment of contented domesticity, President Fitzgerald Grant III's former political nemesis Sally Langston was sitting in her office at the TV studio where her daily show was broadcasted and reading a document that was delivered to her by a courier. As Sally read through the document, a happy evil smile came upon her face thinking she had new damning news about President Grant that would hurt him…


	20. Gladiator Hat Back On PT1

**Author's Note:**

Even though it was Liz North who released the photos of Fitz and Olivia in the White House to Sally but I feel Sally as the journalist/reporter had the choice on whether to disclose the photos and report on the relationship.

* * *

The next morning, Olivia, Fitz, and the kids gathered around the dining table in the Residence dining room to have breakfast and to sample Olivia's homemade strawberry jam. They all tried Olivia's jam on toast triangles that were served as part of their breakfast meal, with the adult fare being eggs, turkey sausage, and sliced fresh fruit and Teddy having a bowl of oatmeal with raisins. Fitz also had his usual yogurt served to him as well.

As Fitz ate his toast with Olivia's strawberry jam, he found himself imaging a life of having Olivia's homemade jam with his breakfast toast and Olivia sitting with him at a dining table as his daily morning routine. However, he hadn't allowed himself to get too carried away with his imagination since he and Olivia were long way off from to being at a place where the two of them could be considered as a couple.

Fitz did take comfort in knowing Olivia was at ease about staying with him and the kids at the Residence. She partook in the family banter during last night's dinner and even helped him get Teddy ready for bed by getting out a clean pair of pajamas for Teddy while he gave Teddy his bath. After he read Teddy a story and tucked him into bed, he and Olivia had a glass of wine in the living room and talked before they each headed off into their respective bedrooms for the night.

When they were finished with breakfast, Olivia told Fitz and the kids she didn't think she would be back in time for lunch because she, Quinn, and Charlie were planning to go through her fire damaged apartment after her meeting with the insurance rep to find anything salvageable. However, she told Karen and Teddy she would be back in time for their cooking lesson with Michelle learning to make chicken enchiladas.

Both Olivia and Fitz proceeded their day not realizing Sally was about to drop a bombshell on them. Olivia learned of the bombshell while she was at her apartment. As she was walking through her fire damaged apartment with the insurance rep, Quinn's phone rang. When Quinn checked her phone, she saw it was Karen calling her.

"Hi, Karen. What's up?...Olivia is meeting with the insurance rep right now…What's happened?!...All right. As soon as Olivia finishes her meeting with the insurance person, I'll have her call you. I promise."

After Quinn ended her call with Karen, she selected for the internet browser app on her smart phone so she could do an internet search. Charlie was with her and asked "What's going on, Quinn?"

"Karen says the President has a paternity suit filed against him. Sally Langston got some court documents about the lawsuit and publicly announced it on her show this morning," replied Quinn as she doing an internet search to get more information about the paternity suit. The internet search results showed links to Sally's televised report about the paternity suit. As Quinn scrolled through the list of links with Charlie looking over, he said "It seems there isn't an independent report about paternity suit other than what Sally said on her show."

"Which probably means she somehow got an exclusive tip on the story," added Quinn.

When Olivia finished her meeting with the insurance rep and the two exchanged good byes with the insurance rep promising to be in touch with Olivia on the status of the claim, she walked over to where Quinn and Charlie were standing. She saw they were engrossed on Quinn's smart phone. "What's up, guys?"

Quinn and Charlie shifted their attention to Olivia before Quinn said "Liv, the President has a paternity suit filed against him according to Sally Langston…"

When Olivia heard the words "paternity suit", she felt the floor underneath her wash away and was about to collapse just when Charlie saw her collapsing and rushed towards to her to catch her so she wouldn't fall onto the floor.

"Liv! Are you ok?!" exclaimed Quinn. Since the apartment was fire damaged and sooty there was no place for Olivia sit, Quinn and Charlie helped Olivia out of the fire damaged apartment into the building floor hallway and to sit down out in the hallway floor.

Quinn and Charlie didn't know what caused Olivia's almost sudden collapse and were concerned she was having some kind of "set-back" with her medical recovery. "Liv, we should get you to the ER to get checked out," said Quinn.

"No!" declared Olivia loudly. "I'm ok. I need to get to the White House. I have to find out what's happening," she said as she was trying to get herself off the floor.

Quinn and Charlie exchanged a glance before Quinn said "We'll drive you back to the White House. We'll leave the empty boxes and come back another day to go through the rooms."

Olivia nodded her head as she let Quinn help her up from the floor. Once Olivia was off the floor, she locked up her apartment with her key and the three of them took the elevator down to the ground floor. When they were inside the car, with Charlie at the wheel and Quinn and Olivia in the backseat, Quinn told Olivia about Karen's phone call and the promise to call back. Olivia took out her cell phone and called Karen.

"Hey, Karen…Quinn just told me…I'm coming back to the White House now and head directly to the West Wing to find out what's going on…We'll get to the bottom of this, ok?... I'll see you soon."

After Olivia was done with her call, she used the internet browser app on her phone to do a search on Fitz's paternity suit and got the video link to the Sally's report. When she played the video link, Olivia could see a smug Sally sitting at her desk and holding a document in her hand saying _**Dear Friends of Liberty, I hold in my hand the latest black eye to the highest office in our country. President Fitzgerald Grant III's latest travesty involves a post-Olivia Pope dalliance that has produce, what I suspect to be an unexpected fourth child for the President that will need his financial support…**_

Olivia couldn't listen anymore and had to stop the video. _Unexpected fourth child._

The words rang in Olivia's head. Her baby would have been Fitz's fourth child had she had the baby.

"Liv, is there any possibility that there is a legitimate paternity suit against the President?" asked Quinn.

Olivia wanted so much to say there wasn't the possibility but she knew Fitz went through a few weeks of sleeping around and literally turned his master bedroom into some kind of White House Playboy Mansion with the number of women that went through the bedroom door. Abby tried to maintain some control over the situation but there was only so much Abby could do. It wasn't only until she made her visit to the Oval and she and Fitz "had it out" that was when it finally stopped.

Even if Fitz used protection during those encounters, there was always a chance of pregnancy since abstinence was only method of birth control that was 100% effective. Not to mention, this was the same man who barely managed to get it up but somehow got Mellie pregnant with Teddy according to what Mellie shared with her during their one of their late night hooch drinking Fitz bashing sessions. Olivia also knew first hand of Fitz's virility and potency when she found herself pregnant unexpectedly while being on the Pill.

"It's possible," replied Olivia as she looked out the side window rather than facing Quinn. She didn't want Quinn to see the tears that were welling in her eyes. If DNA test results did proved Fitz was the father, the thought of Fitz having a baby with another woman created horrible knots inside her as she considered the possible scenarios to the situation. There was the obvious situation of the woman using it for financial gain and both Fitz and the child would be victims in the situation, with Fitz wanting to do right for the child but the woman would be focused on her personal gain, and the child caught in the middle. However, the situation that was causing panic for Olivia was the woman who in a state of romantic naivete slept with Fitz thinking he had romantic intentions for her and got pregnant from their one night stand. In that situation, Fitz's sense of duty would prompt him to do more for this woman which could lead him forming an emotional attachment to her. After all, this woman wasn't just having his child but wanted to have his child. The filing of the paternity suit would be a practical action in wanting help to raise a child and not a means to financial gain.

As Charlie drove the car through the DC downtown traffic, Olivia considered what her status as the love of Fitz's life meant in light of what she had done during the Christmas holiday and the situation of another woman having Fitz's baby, especially one who might genuinely care for him. Olivia knew Fitz still loved her even after the abortion and perhaps on some level forgave her for not telling him about the baby and having the abortion but would Fitz have enough hope and trust to give them another chance with the knowledge there was a woman out there who didn't have any issues or qualms about wanting him and wanting to have his children.

When the car pulled up in front of the West Wing gate entrance, Quinn asked "Liv, do you want us on standby to help out?"

"Yeah. I need to talk to Abby first to find out what they know and have," replied Olivia. "But we'll have to be discreet. I'm still on medical leave and I can't give the impression I am doing OPA work."

"Ok. Charlie and I will head back to my apartment. If you need us to do anything, we'll head to OPA to do work. We'll contact you at the White House so you don't need to come in to OPA."

"That's a good idea," said Olivia before she got out of the car. Olivia greeted and walked passed the West Wing gate security post. Since Olivia was a White House houseguest, Abby made provisions to allow Olivia to enter through either the West Wing or East Wing entrances. As she walked through the West Wing entrance, Olivia ignored the stop and stares among the White House staffers walking through the hallway as she made her way to Abby's office. When Olivia arrived at Abby's Chief of Staff office, she immediately proceeded in without knocking. Olivia saw Abby standing by her desk and in the process of printing out a document from her computer.

When Abby heard her door open, she looked away from her computer was surprised to see Olivia. "Liv, what are you doing here? I thought you were at your apartment dealing with the insurance stuff."

"I was," said Olivia as she walked towards Abby's desk. "Karen called and told us about the paternity suit. What do you have?"

"Not much," replied Abby as she went to the printer to retrieve the printed document. "We - Fitz, David, Susan, Liz, and I were having a team meeting in the Oval when Ethan interrupted it because of Sally's late breaking report."

As she held the printed document, Abby said "I hate that woman. She has been the bane of this presidential administration existence. We should have fixed it for her to go to prison for murdering her closeted husband."

"We should have, except Cyrus got himself caught in the mess of helping Sally cover up the murder."

"I don't suppose there's some way we can fix it now…"

"Maybe. We might need to put on thinking caps to do it," Olivia replied with a light chuckle. After her chuckle, Olivia reverted back to the topic of concern. "What are you doing about the suit?"

"Nothing much right now. The thing is Fitz hasn't been served papers about the suit. Sally's announcement caught us off guard. I was thinking in a moment of dramatic flair as we were watching Sally's broadcast, someone was going to come into the White House and actually serve Fitz the papers. Susan and Liz are on the phones handling damage control with Congress and the Party just from the announcement. David and White House counsel are scouring through the legal databases to find out if the lawsuit has been filed. If it has been filed, then it just a matter of time of Fitz getting the papers. White House Counsel and whoever Fitz decides to hire to be his personal lawyer to handle the paternity suit will probably draw lines so the White House doesn't get embroiled in a private personal lawsuit."

"Where's Fitz? Is he holed up in the Oval? I'll go and see him…"

"He's not here. Right after Sally dropped her announcement, Fitz got a phone call from Langley. They said they needed to see him. Immediately."

"About my father?"

"I don't know. He didn't say. They just told him he needed to get over to Langley ASAP."

Olivia saw the document in Abby's hand. From the perspective where Olivia was looking at the document it resembled a list of names. "What do you have in your hand, Abby?"

"It's the list of names of the women who Fitz spent time with when he went off the rails." Abby focused her attention on Lillian Forrester since Lillian was someone who could cause serious harm to the White House in her professional role as a journalist but had been less diligent in following the other women who had been passing through Fitz's bedroom. "We are going to need to start tracking down these women to find out if it is one of them…"

"I can have Quinn and Charlie do that. It will be more discreet than having the White House do it."

"You are still on medical leave. You can't be doing OPA work. If you are doing OPA work, people will be expecting you to go back on the campaign trail with Mellie and Jake."

"Quinn and Charlie will be doing all the heavy lifting. They will just be reporting in to me here at the White House and I will pass the info onto you and Fitz."

"All right," Abby said as she handed over the document to Olivia. Olivia took the document and walked over to the window in the Abby's office. As Olivia looked at the list of names, she could feel her heart sinking deeper and deeper inside her chest as she wondered which one of the women on the list was possibly carrying Fitz's baby. She was fighting off the temptation of wanting to curl up the document, throwing it away, and falling on her knees crying.

She remembered feeling betrayed when she found out Fitz slept with Amanda Tanner and there had been possibility of Amanda being pregnant with Fitz's baby. When she resigned from the White House, she believed it was the right thing to do – Fitz was a married man and she couldn't be a distraction for him. She held the hope that Fitz would be faithful to the memory of their love and he wouldn't sleep with anyone else after her. However, what she learned Fitz was only human and had needs which was why he slept with Amanda.

With Mellie getting pregnant with Teddy, she had been wounded. The pregnancy was the price that had to be paid to order to save Fitz and his first term as President. Fitz hadn't wanted it and was willing to walk away from the Oval so they could be together. However, other voices - Cyrus, Mellie - who couldn't walk away from the Oval prevailed, and now, both Mellie and Cyrus were jockeying for their place in the Oval. She walked away that time for a greater good – for Fitz to be President and not allowed to have his term be tainted because she was his "mistress."

When they were finally together without the stigma of Fitz being a married man, she just walked away when they had problems. The one who was ultimately betrayed and wounded was Fitz. He held her in the light as being the woman he loved and was going to be with but she just negated it and left. She had no right to expect Fitz to be faithful to the memory of their love when they separated, especially after her insults and telling him there was "no us, no Vermont". She hadn't remained faithful to the memory when she had Jake as a sex buddy.

Olivia continued to look out the window quietly when David entered Abby's office. David half expected to see Olivia in Abby's office in light of the current White House "crisis". "Hi, Olivia. Providing cavalry support?"

"I suppose you say that," replied Olivia as she turned her head slightly to look at David. After the initial acknowledgement, Olivia turned her attention back to the window. She didn't want anyone to see the anguish she was feeling.

"Did you find anything?" asked Abby.

"Nothing. White House Counsel and I searched through the 50 states and its territories. We also did an international search just in case the woman in question is a foreign national. Granted filing the lawsuit internationally isn't practical if the woman wants money. She would still need a US court to enforce judgement for the paternity suit and this would be an extra administrative burden," replied David.

David then added "It's possible the lawsuit hasn't been filed and whoever this woman's lawyer is has decided to use the court of public opinion to work in their favor for the suit. Backing the President into a corner where he has to respond the lawsuit when it gets filed and when he is served. If the public knows about the suit, the President can't make it go away even if he wanted it to."

He then paused before saying "The crazy alternative is that there is no lawsuit and Sally has been used in some kind of hoax and the President is the collateral damage to the hoax."

"Someone is trying to discredit Sally by using Fitz? That's pretty crazy," said Abby.

"It's not that crazy. If a reporter or journalist issues a false report about the President, that's the end of the reporter's career. If Sally thought the documents she got were genuine, she would have run with the story, especially something like this. Granted she should have confirmed by checking to see if the lawsuit been filed. However, given Sally's proclivity to report on anything negative about the President, she might not have bothered."

David and Abby continued on with their discussion about the lawsuit while Olivia continued to look out the window and listening on the conversation when Fitz entered into Abby's office. David and Abby stopped their conversation to greet Fitz. When Fitz saw Olivia, he asked Abby "Did you call Olivia?"

"No, she didn't," replied Olivia turning her head slightly to look at Fitz. "Karen called Quinn while we were at my apartment dealing with the insurance rep. She told Quinn what was happening. Karen is worried and upset."

"Well, there is no need for her to worry or be upset about the paternity suit. The reason why I got called to Langley was because of it. The CIA got whiff of Sally's announcement on her show and wanted to assure me that I am not going to be father again," said Fitz. He added "It seems a President's sex life and who he sleeps with is a matter of interest to national intelligence…"

"You mean the CIA has been monitoring the women who you had been with?" asked Abby incredulously.

"It would appear so. There is the concern about possible traitors or undercover foreign agents using the White House bedroom to infiltrate."

"You have to admit that it is a distinct possibility," commented David.

"You're right about that, David," said Fitz in acknowledgement.

"Are they sure?" asked Abby.

"If Sally's statement about it being someone after Olivia and I broke up, they are sure."

When Olivia heard there was no substance to the paternity suit, she turned her head to face the window, closed her eyes and allowed the tears that were pooling in her eyes to finally run.

"Now that we know there isn't any truth to the lawsuit, we are going to need to talk to Sally about this. We can't have her perpetuate a false report about you," said Abby. "I'll call Sally to schedule a meeting with her. Sooner the better."

"I agree, Abby," added Fitz. Fitz noticed Olivia was just standing looking at the window in complete silence. The Olivia Pope he knew would be part of the conversation in providing advice and strategy in how best to handle Sally. The fact she was apart from the conversation meant her attention was somewhere else.

"Abby, David, do you mind if Olivia and I have the room?"

"No problem. We'll call Sally from David's office," said Abby before she and David left her office leaving Fitz and Olivia alone together.

Fitz walked over to the window to where Olivia was standing. When he was standing next to her, he said "Liv. Livie," as he touched her back. As soon as Fitz touched her, Olivia immediately reached for Fitz and using her good arm, she held him against her and cried.

"Livie, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" asked Fitz as he held her.

Olivia was overwhelmed with emotions that she couldn't speak. While there was the feeling of relief in knowing Fitz wasn't having a baby with another woman, she was also feeling grief and loss – it was nearly 10 years from when she and Fitz first met and they were still in the same place they were all those years ago – apart from each other and still struggling to come together as a couple. There was an empty house in Vermont that was waiting for them. Fitz had been right about there being no victims in their situation – just choices that were made which kept them apart. She didn't want to be in this place anymore. She had to fix it once and for all.

Olivia stopped her tears and said "I have to fix this."

"Liv, there's nothing to fix," responded Fitz in a practical voice. "The person who has to do damage control is Sally for going public with a story that isn't true, not us.

"It's not just that. It's everything else…"

"I don't understand, Liv…"

As gladiator Olivia was taking charge, she wasn't letting Sally get a pass on what happened. Sally hadn't just been the bane of existence to Fitz's presidency but also to their relationship – she had been the one to disclose it to the public at a time when her and Fitz's relationship was at the start of the turning point of them being a couple. They needed time but instead they got the wolves at their doors waiting to eat them alive because of Sally's report.

"I'm going to see Sally," said Olivia firmly as she separated from Fitz's embrace. While Fitz knew trying to stop Olivia from doing something, especially when she was a determined state was useless, Olivia couldn't just show up at Sally's studio without it raising questions about her health and her ability to continue on as Mellie's campaign manager.

"Liv, you can't. You are on medical leave. If you go to see Sally, she is going to think I and/or the White House hired you to deal with the false report and if you are "working", it would suggest you are well enough to go back on the trail. Knowing Sally, she is going to ask questions…"

Olivia knew Fitz was right about her showing up at Sally's studio and the rumors that would start about her being well enough to be a campaign manager. As Olivia considered alternative course of actions that would allow her to confront Sally without it jeopardizing her "medical leave", Abby and David returned to Abby's office.

"Sally is giving us, or rather David, 10 minutes in an hour from now," said Abby.

When Olivia heard David would be meeting with Sally, she had a way in without arousing suspicion. She asked "David, do you mind if I tagged along for your meeting with Sally?"

David looked at Fitz and Abby and wondered if they were going to say something to discourage Olivia. The three of them knew Olivia needed to keep a low profile so she could distance herself from the presidential campaign. Olivia tagging along with him for the appointment with Sally wasn't exactly keeping a low profile. Olivia then added "I'm presuming you are the official White House voice during the meeting…"

"Yeah, I am," he responded.

If David was the official White House voice, it meant she hadn't been hired by Fitz and/or the White House to "handle" the matter and she wasn't working.

Fitz knew Olivia was determined to see Sally and he couldn't stop her from doing it. While Abby had reservations about Olivia going with David because of the rumors that would start about Olivia being fit and well, she also sensed Olivia was ready to take gladiator action to "shut down" Sally and in this particular situation, there was no need to stop Olivia from doing it. If necessary, they could figure out some way to spin the situation where Olivia could maintain the appearance of being on sick leave.

Since neither Fitz nor Abby were taking action to stop Olivia, David knew he didn't have any cause to pre-empt Olivia from "tagging" along. "You are welcome to come with me, Olivia." David also thought better not to add the comment "So long as you let me do the talking." He knew Olivia would speak her mind when she wanted to.

"About the so-called paternity suit, it not just the matter of Sally stopping the story. We also need to find out her source. Mr. President, while it is possible you are being used to discredit Sally, it's possible the paternity suit is an attack against you and Sally is convenient bait to start it," said David.

"You're right, David. We need to find out where or how Sally got the story," added Fitz.

Forty five minutes later, Olivia and David were sitting in the backseat of a car that was taking them to Sally's studio. When they arrived at the studio, the security guard let them pass through to get to Sally's office.

Sally expected David and politely greeted him when he entered into her office. However, she had not expected Olivia to be with him and was taken aback. She quickly regained composure to say "Miss Pope, what a surprise."

"Sally."

"How are you feeling? The accident in Boulder must have been quite a shock to your system…"

"I'm slowly mending," replied Olivia gesturing to her broken arm and making sure she was giving the impression that she wasn't completely healed up.

"I'm glad to hear that." Sally then directed her attention to David and said "So, Mr. Rosen, you are here to discuss my report from this morning about the President," as she gestured for David and Olivia to take a seat in front of her desk.

"Yes, I am." David proceeded to tell Sally no paternity suit had been filed and Fitz had not been served any papers about the suit. He also told Sally the White House had evidence that Fitz had not fathered a child during the time period she claimed he had. David suggested the possibility to Sally that the story was a hoax, either with the intent to harm her and/or the President. If the story was a hoax, they needed to know the source of the story or how she got "legal documents" about the paternity suit.

Rather than taking David's comments seriously, Sally just laughed and said "Really, Mr. Rosen. Do you think I am that naïve? I'm rather amazed that this is the first time President Grant has a paternity suit filed against…"

Before Sally could finish, Olivia shot up from her seat, looked at Sally directly in the eye and said in a steely voice "Sally, you have five minutes to give us whatever documents you have about this paternity suit. If you don't, I'm going to shut down your show for issuing a false report about the President and you'll be lucky enough to be an intern for one of the morning news programs. I will also personally represent President Fitzgerald Grant III in a lawsuit against you for slander and defamation and will take every penny you have."

Sally, while looking at Olivia, felt fear running through her as she heard Olivia's words. She didn't know what she was more afraid of – losing her TV show and personal wealth for possibly falsely claiming that President Fitzgerald Grant III fathered a child from a one-night stand or incurring the wrath of Olivia Pope for insulting President Fitzgerald Grant III…


	21. Gladiator Hat Back On PT2

Fifteen minutes later, Olivia and David were sitting in the back of the car that was driving them back to the White House. Since Olivia was still seeing red from their meeting with Sally, it was just David looking over the document Sally handed over to them concerning the paternity suit. Olivia knew a calm rational head was needed to review the document and David was in a better position to do it. Olivia stayed silent during the car ride to allow David to review the document in peace. She knew David would give his assessment once they got back to the White House.

When they walked into the Oval, Fitz, Abby, Susan, and Liz were already there. The four of them were in the sitting area having sandwiches as a make shift lunch for a ruined day because of Sally's news report. While Olivia and David were meeting with Sally, Fitz and Abby had been meeting with Susan and Liz to get a debriefing on the damage control calls with the Republican Party and Congress.

"Were you able to get a copy of the documents Sally had?" Abby asked eagerly.

"Better than that. Sally gave us everything. We have the original. Sally doesn't even have a copy. I don't think she wanted it anymore when Olivia convinced her she was holding radioactive material that could hurt her," replied David as he and Olivia took a seat in the sitting area.

"Olivia, what did you say to Sally to convince her to hand over the documents to us?" asked Fitz.

"The threat of her losing her TV show and a personal lawsuit filed by you with me as your lawyer suing for slander and defamation."

While Fitz felt pride that his Livie would be his gladiator but he was also concern Olivia's statement to Sally could cause problems for Olivia in being able to keep her distance from the presidential campaign because she was still on medical leave.

Abby then asked "Was Sally willing to disclose the source for her story?"

"It wasn't much of a source," replied Olivia as she poured herself a glass of water and took a drink. "Someone sent her the document to her office at the studio through a courier service. We could track down who hired the courier to deliver the document."

"What Sally got was a complaint that outlined the points of the claim for the paternity suit. However, I don't think the complaint is legit either. Take a look at the name of the person who is making the suit," said David as he passed the "legal" document to Fitz so he could read it.

After taking the document from David, Fitz looked at the left side of the first page of the document where the name of person filing the lawsuit would be. When he saw the name, Fitz raised an eyebrow and smirked. Fitz then handed the document to Abby to look at. When Abby saw the name, she exclaimed incredulously "Are you serious?!" and passed the document over to Olivia.

Olivia saw red creeping up again as soon she saw the name of the woman filing the paternity suit against Fitz. "Sally must really hate you to be this gullible to think this complaint is real," she said as she angrily tossed the document on the coffee table. Since Susan and Liz had been invited to be part of the meeting concerning the paternity suit, they wanted to know the name of the woman who filed the paternity suit against Fitz. Susan picked up the document and shared it with Liz so Liz could see the name. Although Susan was the only person in the room who didn't have a law degree but even with her lack of legal knowledge, she knew a lawsuit started by someone with the name "Jill Smith" should warrant further investigation to make sure it was legitimate. That is, while the name "Jill Smith" was potentially a real name, there is also the strong possibility it was a fake name as well. After looking at the document, Susan set the document on the coffee table. When Olivia saw Susan set down the document, she immediately reached for it and starting to read over the document.

"Thoughts, David?" asked Fitz.

"I think the suit is a hoax. The question is why. The truth about the lawsuit being fake would eventually come out after spending time and energy digging into it."

"Maybe that's point. If the White House was spending its time handling a possible presidential paternity suit, we wouldn't have time to work what we needed to do during our remaining time in office," chimed Susan. "Liz and I were on the phones dealing with damage control just from the mention of the paternity suit."

As Fitz contemplated Susan's statement, he wondered if someone in Congress felt strongly enough about the legislative agenda and policy initiatives he wanted to work on during the last few months of his term to want to stop it by diverting the White House attention to dealing with a paternity suit. "Who would have enough political motivation to want to do this?" he asked.

Before anyone could come up with a possible individual, the intercom on Fitz's desk buzzed. He got up from his seat to answer the intercom. "Yes, Charlotte?...Oh, all right, send him in." Fitz returned to the seating area and said "Leo Bergen is outside. He's here on behalf of Sally."

When Leo entered the room, he hoped it was just him meeting with Fitz and Abby with David joining them, if necessary. However, when he saw Olivia sitting in the Oval, he knew there was only so much he was able to do to save Sally from her folly. Leo knew Sally's anger and resentment towards President Fitzgerald Grant III for usurping what she felt she should had been her destiny – sitting in the Oval Office as POTUS - would eventually catch up to her and she would do something reckless.

"Mr. President, thank you so much for meeting with me," said Leo smoothly. Even though Sally hired him to be her "fixer" for the mess she got herself into, Leo was smart enough to tread lightly with the White House, especially it was the White House team provided him safety and refuge after he got kidnapped and was taken to Santa Barbara.

"Not at all, Leo," Fitz responded back with his charming Grant smile.

Leo didn't know if it would be Abby in her capacity as White House Chief of Staff or Olivia as President Fitzgerald Grant III's protector to ask him what Sally wanted. It was Abby who spoke first. "Leo, I take it Sally hired you to deal with damage control for running with the story about the paternity suit without properly checking it first," she said as she stood from her seat in the sitting area.

"Yeah. She was pretty rattled after her meeting with David and Olivia. She is hoping we can work something out so that all of us can maintain face since both she and the President are victims in this hoax lawsuit…"

When Olivia heard Sally thought of herself as a victim, she immediately got up from her seat while still holding the document that claimed Fitz fathered a child from a one-night stand and said "Leo, tell Sally that the President will be in touch with her after he has considered his legal options. After all, we wouldn't be dealing with damage control if Sally hadn't been so irresponsible with her reporting in the first place."

Olivia hoped Fitz and Abby would back her up and have Sally "stew" for a while. Fitz took the cue and said "We'll be in touch. Thanks for coming in, Leo."

"No problem. I'll let Sally know," said Leo before leaving the Oval.

After Leo left the Oval, Olivia said "I don't think the hoax paternity suit is politically driven. It's personal," as she moved away from the sitting area.

"What makes you say that?" asked Fitz.

"Gut feeling. I'm going to have Quinn and Charlie check on some things to confirm. I'll let you know."

Olivia left the Oval leaving Fitz, Abby, David, Susan and Liz to finish their lunch and to get the rest of their work day back on track after dealing with hoax paternity suit. She took the elevator up to the Residence and as she walked passed the Residence kitchen, she heard Karen's and Teddy's voices emanating from the kitchen. She back tracked and went into the kitchen. She saw Karen and Teddy sitting at the small kitchen table having some lunch.

"Lib, you're back!" said Teddy in a loud happy voice. "Karen made me a peanut butter-strawberry jam sandwich for lunch."

"Do you like it?"

"It's yummy," replied Teddy before taking a bite out of quarter sandwich triangle.

While Teddy had a peanut butter-strawberry jam sandwich with a glass of milk, Karen decided to have yesterday's leftovers for her lunch. She had a plate covered with a little bit of everything – chicken, meatloaf, salad, mashed potatoes, and peas and carrots.

"Is everything ok? Dad came up earlier to talk to me about what was happening…"

"It's going to be fine, Karen," said Olivia in a reassuring voice. With that, Karen got up from her seat and gave Olivia a hug, taking care not to hug too hard because of Olivia's broken arm. Even though Fitz told her there was no basis for the paternity suit, hearing from Olivia provided Karen the assurance she needed.

After Karen separated from Olivia, she asked "Are you hungry? Dad's schedule got messed up because of Sally's story and felt bad he couldn't have lunch with us. I told the kitchen not to bother to send anything up since it was just Teddy and me and there was already plenty of food."

"I am hungry but I need to make a few calls before I eat."

"I can make a plate for you while you make your calls…"

"Actually, I was going to make myself a peanut butter-strawberry jam sandwich…"

"Let me make your sandwich while you make you calls."

Teddy gave Olivia a big smile when he heard Olivia wanted a peanut butter-strawberry jam sandwich for lunch. "I'll help Karen make your sandwich, Lib."

"Thanks, Karen. Thanks, Teddy."

Olivia left the kitchen to head to her guest room. After setting down her handbag, she pulled out her cell phone and called Quinn.

"What do you need, Liv?" Olivia loved the fact Quinn was always ready to spring into the action. "Do you need us to track down…"

"No need, Quinn. We think the suit is a hoax."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. Sally only got the complaint outlining the paternity suit claim. Nothing has been filed with the court and Fitz hasn't been served. The name of the woman who is suing is "Jill Smith". Anyway, Fitz has been assured by an extremely reliable 3rd party source he hasn't fathered anymore children so there is no substance to the lawsuit."

"So we don't need to do anything?" asked Quinn with a slight disappointment. Quinn had hoped to be doing some real OPA work.

"We do. We need to find out the source for the fake paternity suit story. Sally said she got the complaint delivered to her by a courier service. We need to find out who hired the service. I'm going to text you the name of courier service and you and Charlie can start digging to find out who hired them. Also, can you ask Charlie to send an encrypted and coded email to Huck to get intel on Jake?"

"You think Jake is involved with planting the story of the fake paternity suit?"

"I do. Even though the name of the woman in the lawsuit is fake, there's detailed information in the complaint with dates about when Fitz slept with this woman that coincide with the time Fitz got carried away with his sex life. Whoever has this information had to know what was going on inside the White House. Jake is NSA Director working in the White House so he would have been able to find out."

"Why would he do it?"

"To get me to come back to him. I think his plan was for me to get hurt thinking Fitz was having a baby with another woman and I would come back to the campaign to salve the wound. Olivia then said "While Huck is gathering intel about Jake from the campaign trail, you and Charlie can dig to find out if Jake has made any big payments. He would have had to hire someone, a lawyer or a law student to prepare the complaint and would have had to pay big money get someone to write a fake lawsuit against the President."

"I'll have Charlie contact Huck but you know they are at end of the trail and will be back in DC in a few days. Mellie and Jake, along with your father are in Alaska now. Mellie and Jake have the hunting trip scheduled with the Governor."

"I forgot about the hunting trip." When Olivia was still Mellie's campaign manager and planning with Mellie on various campaign trail activities, Mellie insisted on accepting the Governor of Alaska's invitation to a hunting trip. She wanted to show anything Fitz could do, she could do better, and in this case, Mellie had the right to boast since she had a better shot than Fitz.

Olivia continued on "Ask Huck to get much as info as he can while they are out there and we'll put the pieces together."

"If Jake is responsible, what are we going to do?"

"I'm not sure. Right now, I need confirmation that's it Jake and not someone else. Fitz is worried the fake lawsuit might be politically motivated. If it is Jake, then it is personally motivated."

"All right. Charlie and I will head over OPA to start digging into Jake's financials and we will deal with the courier service tomorrow. Charlie can also get in contact with Huck when we at OPA."

"Good. Thanks, Quinn."

"No problem. I'll report back once we have info for you."

Olivia ended her call with Quinn. As Olivia thought about what Quinn said about her father and Jake scheduled to be back in DC in a few days, Olivia wasn't feeling anxious or scared about it. She knew her father let her go. Even though Jake was trying to get her to come back but if his tactics of trying to separate her from Fitz involved her questioning her relationship with Fitz, she was now on alert and would be better prepared when he made his next move.

Olivia proceeded to make her next call. When the call was answered on the other end, she said "Yes, it's me, Cyrus…It has been a long time…I'm all right. On the road to recovery from the accident and surgery. I still need to be in an arm cast for a few more weeks…I'm going to cut the chase, Cyrus. I need a favor from you…"


	22. What Olivia Wants

When Olivia finished making her calls, which included making an appointment to see the discreet therapist that Fitz gave her the name of, she returned to the kitchen. In the kitchen, there was a peanut butter-strawberry jam sandwich on a plate waiting for her. Olivia took a seat at the kitchen table and ate with Karen while Teddy, who already finished his sandwich, kept them company at the table. After spending the late morning-early afternoon dealing with Sally and the hoax paternity suit, Olivia found her mood improved as she ate her sandwich and spent time with Karen and Teddy.

After lunch, nanny Jenn took Teddy out to play in his jungle gym while Olivia and Karen retreated to their rooms. Before they went their separate ways, Olivia promised Teddy that they would continue on building his Lego village Teddyville when he got back.

While in her room, Olivia searched for short-term rentals on the internet. However, rather than approaching the task with the focus and precision typical of Olivia Pope, Olivia found herself looking at the rental apartments half-heartedly. She didn't want to move into a temporary rental apartment and wanted to stay at the Residence with Fitz and the kids. However, her stay at the White House was planned for only a "few days" while she could make the appropriate arrangements to get the insurance settled and to find a temporary home while her apartment got repaired. She didn't know how Fitz would feel if she was to ask about staying at the Residence while her apartment got repaired. Olivia, normally forthright, decided she would "feel out" Fitz's thoughts about her staying longer at the Residence. Granted there was the practical matter of how long it would take for her apartment to get repaired. Fitz would need to move out of the White House on January 20th, the day when the next POTUS would get inaugurated.

Olivia wondered if Fitz started to make post-White House housing plans. Even though there was the Vermont house, Fitz also had to think about Teddy. Regardless of the election outcome, Mellie would need to be in the DC area in her political role. Since Mellie had primary custody of Teddy and Fitz had only visitation rights, Fitz moving to Vermont once he left office would only further limit his time with Teddy. As Olivia thought about Fitz's visitation arrangement, she knew it was Mellie's way of holding control over the divorce proceedings. She found out from Mellie that Fitz originally wanted joint custody of Teddy but acquiesced to Mellie to have primary custody so Mellie would sign the divorce papers to allow Fitz to marry her.

Olivia could feel tears starting to well up in her eyes as she thought about Fitz following through on his promise to divorce Mellie so he could marry her. She thought they would follow the old cliché of the doomed affair involving a married man – she would always be the mistress and Fitz as the long-term married man who was unable to get out of his marriage. She never thought the day would come that they could actually be together so any thoughts about them having the happily ever after were never permanent. She hadn't been ready to prepare to commit to Fitz when time came.

Even though they lucked out the paternity suit was more likely a hoax but what happened today could have happened for real – Fitz fathering a child with an another woman and depending upon the circumstances, she might lose him for good. Even though she was working to create a foundation that would allow her and Fitz to get back together again - they had private time together last night when they had wine and talked but their conversation topics didn't involve them as a subject of discussion. She knew they needed to talk about them so they could work through things in order for them to get back together.

When Teddy got back from playing outside, he found Olivia in her room and the two of them went to Teddy's playroom to continue on building Teddyville. Teddy wanted the fictional President Teddy Grant to have his own home so they worked on building "The Blue House" since blue was Teddy's favorite color. After they were done building "The Blue House", Olivia checked her watch and saw it was time for her and kids to head to the White House kitchen for their chicken enchilada cooking lesson.

In the White House kitchen, Olivia and the kids saw Michelle had gathered ingredients on a prep table. For their Mexican theme dinner, they would be having chicken enchiladas with a 3-bean avocado salad and flan for dessert. Michelle had them start preparing the flan first with Olivia making the custard mixture using a stand mixer while Karen prepared the syrup. Instead of baking the flan in a large baking dish, they would be baking them in individual ramekins. After Karen poured hot syrup into the individual ramekins, Teddy swirled the ramekins to make sure the syrup covered the entire bottom of the dishes. Once Teddy was done, Olivia, using a ladle, poured the custard mixture into the dishes. Michelle put the ramekins into a large baking pan and filled the pan with hot water before putting the pan into the oven for baking.

An advantage with living in the White House with a full kitchen staff was that there was there was team of people whose job was to do food prep. In the case of the chicken enchiladas, a chicken had already been cooked in advanced that just needed to be shredded to make the filling for the enchiladas. Michelle gave helpful tips to Olivia and Karen on making chicken enchiladas such as how to cut down prep time with buying an already cooked rotisserie chicken from the supermarket and enchiladas was a great make ahead and freeze dish. After shredding the chicken and making a non-spicy enchilada sauce to accommodate Teddy's palate, Olivia and the kids created an assembly line to make the casserole with Teddy dipping the tortillas in the enchilada sauce, Olivia covering the tortillas with chicken, and Karen folding the filled tortillas and laying them on a baking pan. After filling the pan with the chicken-filled tortillas, Olivia poured the remaining enchilada sauce into the pan and covered the enchiladas with crumbled cotija cheese before Michelle took the pan and set it aside for baking when it was getting closer to dinner time.

For the 3-bean avocado salad, Michelle told Olivia and Karen the advantages of using canned beans for salads. Olivia drained and rinsed canned black, red kidney, and pink beans while Karen cut and chopped the avocados. When Olivia was done preparing the beans, Michelle had her make a lime vinaigrette dressing for the salad. After adding the chopped avocado to the beans avocado and pouring the lime vinaigrette over the avocado-bean mixture, Teddy mixed the salad using a long handle spoon. Michelle put the salad in the refrigerator so the salad could chill and have the flavor of the lime vinaigrette meld with the beans and avocado.

With their dinner prep finished, Olivia and the kids returned to the Residence. By the time Fitz came up to the Residence for dinner, Karen and Teddy had set the table and a member of the White House kitchen serving staff already brought up the enchiladas and salad which were on the dining table, as well as the individual flans which had been unmolded onto dessert plates and now chilling in the refrigerator. As they ate dinner, Fitz was relishing the moment of having the love of his life and his children together with him enjoying a family meal. He knew in a few days Mellie would be back from the campaign trail and he would only see Teddy during scheduled visits as per his and Mellie's divorce agreement. Karen already made it known to him and Mellie that she would be staying with him at the White House with occasional visits with Mellie for the remainder of her summer vacation before going back to boarding school. With Olivia, once she found a short-term rental apartment, she would be leaving.

After dinner and clearing off the dining table, Teddy wanted to show Fitz the progress on the building of Teddyville before his bath. Teddy asked Olivia to come with them to his playroom. When he was done showing Teddyville's Blue House to Fitz, Teddy and Fitz headed to the bathroom for bath time. While Fitz was giving Teddy his bath, Olivia went to Teddy's bedroom to get his pajamas. As she passed Teddy's pajamas to Fitz in the bathroom, he asked "A drink in the living room after I tuck Teddy in?" Olivia nodded head and headed towards the living room.

Olivia walked over to the bar in the living room and poured a glass of red wine for herself and a tumbler of scotch for Fitz. Instead of waiting for Fitz in the living room, she decided to sit out on the Truman Balcony. Since Olivia had only one good hand, she propped the door leading out to the balcony open before she carried the drinks out on a tray. She kept the door open so Fitz would know to come out to the balcony to find her.

Olivia set the tray on the table as she sat down on the patio sofa. After taking a drink of wine and setting the wine glass back on the table, Olivia sat back against the sofa cushion and appreciated the view of the lit Washington Monument against the evening sky. As she was taking in the view, Olivia remembered the first time she saw the view. It had been with Fitz when she surprised him on the balcony. What had been the happy start of their relationship as a "couple" spiraled downwards once their relationship was made known to the world after Sally's report. As she thought about the damage Sally had done, Olivia considered the possibility of letting Sally "stew" for long as possible before working out some "arrangement" for her to make up for her reckless reporting of the paternity suit but ultimately it was up to Fitz to decide when to let Sally off the hook for what she did.

Olivia's thoughts then drifted to Fitz's do-over proposal on the balcony. He wanted to make things right with her when they were confronted with the situation of having to get married so she could invoke spousal privilege and not having to testify against Fitz during the impeachment hearing. Rather than appreciating the effort he made, all she could say to him was that she didn't want it. She told him they weren't ready to get married but Fitz was right that it was she who wasn't ready and she couldn't tell him what she wanted. At least now she knew what she wanted and it was a matter of rebuilding trust with Fitz so he would have the confidence to go forward.

Olivia's quiet solitude on the balcony was broken when Fitz came out and said "Hi." Olivia noticed he changed into a polo shirt and a pair of casual pants.

"Hi," replied back Olivia with a smile.

Fitz sat down next to Olivia on the sofa and reached for the tumbler of scotch. After taking a sip, he said, "We were so busy dealing with the hoax paternity suit earlier, I forgot to ask about your meeting with the insurance rep. Are there going to be problems for you to get your claim?"

"The rep doesn't think so since I wasn't at fault for the fire."

"David did mention to me that the fire department still hasn't been able to rule out whether the fire was an accident or not."

"My building super told me my neighbor might be suffering from dementia. The neighbor lived alone and didn't have anyone checking on him. The fire could have been caused in a state of confusion. The investigators haven't been able to talk to the neighbor at the hospital because of his medical condition. However, the insurance company won't issue the claim until it gets the final report from the fire department so I have to wait until then."

Olivia paused before asking "Fitz, I know we talked about me staying for only a few days until I figured out my next steps but would it be ok if I stayed longer?" She thought by asking about staying longer in a vague manner would allow her to find out how Fitz felt about her staying at the White House.

Olivia's question about staying longer at the White House warmed Fitz's heart and meant she was comfortable about living at the White House with him. "No problem, Livie. Stay as long as you need. However, both you and I will need to vacate the premises when the new occupants take over on January 20th of the next year," said Fitz with a slight chuckle.

When Fitz said that both he and she needed to be out of the White House by January 20th in the new year, she took it to mean that she could stay with him until it was time for him to leave office. "I know that. Speaking of new occupants, have you made plans as to where you are going to live when you leave office?"

"I have. We, meaning the White House have been keeping it quiet. I'm the process of getting a home in the DC area so I can see Teddy. Regardless if Mellie is POTUS or the Senator from Virginia, Mellie needs to be in DC which means I also need to be here as well. If Mellie does become president, Teddy should have a hands-on parent and since I will be officially out of the White House with no official function because I'm the ex-husband, I will have the time to be the kind of father I want to be for Teddy."

"What about the Vermont home?" Olivia needed to know if Fitz was still keeping the Vermont dream alive.

Fitz wanted to be honest with Olivia about the Vermont house. Even though he did want them to get back together, he didn't want to "push" for reconciliation and was leaving up to Olivia to decide what she wanted. "I'll make a decision about the Vermont home after the election. The truth is I wouldn't be able to live in the Vermont house by myself. Since it was supposed to be our house, living in the house with someone else doesn't seem right either. If Mellie gets elected, I'm probably going to sell it since Teddy will have access to Camp David which he loves. If Mellie doesn't get elected, I'll keep it for a while as a weekend home. I'll take Teddy there on long weekends so he can have an open outdoor space to run around."

When Olivia heard Fitz's comments, she felt both sad and relieved. While Fitz wasn't thinking about Vermont for them but at least he couldn't see sharing Vermont with another woman either. However, since she was able to stay at the White House until next year, she had the next few months to fix her relationship with Fitz and as the world greatest fixer, she was going to make sure both she and Fitz were leaving the White House together as a couple, as well as seeing Mellie didn't get elected as president…


	23. Ray of Hope

The next morning, Olivia, Fitz and the kids had more of Olivia's homemade strawberry jam with their breakfast toast that was served with the mushroom-spinach omelets plus a small plain omelet for Teddy the White House kitchen prepared for them. While they ate, Fitz and Olivia told the kids that she would be extending her stay with them.

"That's great, Olivia," said Karen with a big smile while Teddy gave a big cheer when they heard the news.

Both Olivia and Fitz were enjoying the moment of being domestic with Karen and Teddy. However, the happy moment was interrupted when Teddy brought up something that caused alarm for Olivia, Fitz, and Karen.

"Daddy, when is Mommy coming home?"

"Soon. In a few days." Fitz didn't begrudged Teddy for missing Mellie. A child should not be faulted for missing his mother.

"Are the bad scary men with Mommy?"

Olivia, Fitz, and Karen stopped eating when they heard Teddy's question. Before Fitz could answer Teddy's question, Teddy said "If the bad scary men are with Mommy, I don't want to be with Mommy."

There was a moment of silence which Fitz broke when he said "It's ok, Teddy, you don't have to. I'll talk to Mommy. If they are, I'll ask her to let you stay with me. All right?"

Teddy nodded his head agreement and resumed eating his breakfast. Although Teddy was eating, Olivia, Fitz, and Karen found their appetite disappeared. With Mellie's and Jake's campaign trail about to end in a few days, their thoughts were now focused on how to keep Teddy away from Rowan since Mellie had primary custody of Teddy and he lived with her as part of the divorce agreement.

Olivia remembered Fitz telling her that the kids had been traumatized by the presence of her father and the people who were working with him when they had been at the Santa Barbara ranch house and she knew Karen and Teddy shouldn't be around her father and his hench team. While Fitz knew the CIA had a plan in place to "take down" Rowan once the campaign trail ended and everyone returned to DC, he didn't know when it would happen or whether or not it would be successful. So long as Rowan was alive and well and controlling the campaign, Mellie would have to deal with him and which might mean Teddy having to be around him as well. Karen's decision to spend the rest of summer vacation with her father at the White House had nothing to do with Rowan but rather she was still struggling with her feelings about her mother in light of what happened. However, she still didn't want her baby brother to be around such a dangerous man.

After breakfast, Fitz headed down to the Oval making the mental note he needed to call Mellie to talk to her about Rowan and to let her know that under no circumstances was he allowing Teddy to be around Rowan. However, with the 4 hour time zone difference between DC and Alaska and Mellie needing to deal with campaign activities late into Alaska time, he knew he might be having the conversation with Mellie at some strange hour DC time but that didn't mattered to him.

While Karen went to her room to continue working on her college applications, Olivia and Teddy kept each other company. Since Quinn and Charlie was busy gathering information on the fake paternity suit, Olivia was waiting for Quinn to give her phone updates on what discovered. Since she no longer needed to find a temporary rental apartment to tie her over, Olivia used her free time to help Teddy practice writing the alphabet and numbers in preparation for pre-K. As she was helping Teddy, she discovered Teddy was left-handed like Fitz.

The more time she was spending with Teddy, Olivia found herself wishing for her own left-handed little boy with dark wavy brown hair and cerulean eyes. As Olivia pondered about her wish, she felt tears welling in her eyes from the painful knowledge of what she had done last Christmas. Olivia's painful reflection was broken when her cell phone rang. When she saw it was Quinn calling, she said "Teddy, I need to talk to Quinn on the phone. I'll be outside, ok?"

"Ok, Lib," replied Teddy with a smile and returned his attention to writing his ABCs.

Olivia answered her cell phone as soon as she stepped into the hallway. "Hey, Quinn. What did you find?"

"If Jake is involved with manufacturing the fake paternity suit, he is doing a good job of hiding his tracks. Whoever hired the courier service paid in cash and we think the name that was given to the courier service is a fake name. We weren't able to find any big withdrawals out of traceable bank accounts. It's possible Jake used his secret "non-traceable" bank account we know about to make payment. Charlie is trying some kind of hacker magic to get info on that secret bank account."

Olivia had hoped Jake would have been sloppy or at least left a crumb but she knew Jake as a former spy would have made sure his activities could not be traced. However, she still had Huck gathering intel from the trail. "Did you get anything from Huck?"

"He said he will dig around to find out if Jake has been making any calls that might seem suspicious. But he did say Jake has been trying to be bestie with Mellie."

"Oh?"

"Huck said Jake is trying to get Mellie to team up together to work on separating you and President from each other. The good news is Mellie isn't buying."

Olivia was happy to hear Mellie was steering clear away from Jake. "Ok. We'll need to keep working on it. With a little bit of luck, we might catch a break and find something." Olivia and Quinn exchanged good-byes before ending the call.

Olivia went back to Teddy's room and the two continued with practicing the alphabet and number writing until Teddy got bored and wanted to do something else. They worked on word games until it was lunchtime.

Fitz was able to join her and the kids for lunch and before they sat down to eat the tuna salad plates, Karen asked her and Fitz if they were free after dinner to look over what she had written so far for her college essays to which both she and Fitz said yes. After lunch, when Teddy went outside with nanny Jenn to play on his jungle gym, Olivia called Abby to ask if they could meet. Luckily, Abby had a small block of free time before her next meeting and invited Olivia to come to down to her office.

After entering Abby's office, Olivia took a seat in front of Abby's desk as Abby said "Some good news on the Sally front. She issued a retraction about the paternity suit story on her show this morning. Leo says she is already in trouble with the network for going ahead with the story without proper fact-checking. I suppose if Fitz does file a personal lawsuit against her, it might be the end of Sally and her TV show."

"At least we put an end to the paternity suit story," said Olivia with a smile before changing to a more serious tone. "Abby, I think Jake is responsible for the fake paternity suit. However, he is too good of a spy to leave a trail for Quinn and Charlie to follow. I'm presuming he has access to off-the-book resources as NSA Director. Any possibility of finding out what they are?"

"It's possible but we need to be careful so not raise an alarm. The fact Jake is NSA Director, the Republican Party VP candidate and under your father's control makes it a dangerous situation. I wish there was an administrative rule that would have required Jake to resign as NSA Director when he became the VP candidate."

"I take responsibility for making Jake the VP candidate," said Olivia in a regretful voice.

Abby knew Olivia was still dealing with emotional fallout of her decisions because the brain tumor impaired her judgment. "You were sick at the time, Liv," she said in a sympathetic voice.

"I know." Since it was the middle of the Abby's work day, Olivia knew it wasn't the proper time for her to talk with Abby, namely confiding with her about things concerning Fitz. However, there was something Abby needed to know because it could affect the White House. "A separate matter. I asked Fitz about staying at the White House longer and he is ok with it. I know there was never a public announcement about me staying at the White House since it was only going to be a few days. Now that I'm staying longer, it's possible the press might catch whiff of it…"

"Ethan and I have already worked out some of the spin for it should the media disclose you are a White House guest. We are going to say even though you and Fitz are no longer a couple, the two of remained friends and as a friend, Fitz offered a place to stay while you deal with the situation of losing your apartment to a fire and recover from your accident and surgery. We are still figuring out what to say if there are questions and comments about you being Mellie's campaign manager while you live at the White House and the appropriateness of it."

"Maybe you don't need to," said Olivia. "It might be better not to control the spin if we want to change a certain outcome."

Olivia hoped Abby would understand what she was saying subtly about the election and she knew Abby got it when Abby said "I see what you mean. All right, we'll let the American public decide what to make of you living at the White House with your ex-boyfriend who just happens to be the president while being the campaign manager to his ex-wife who is running for president." Abby ended her comment with a smile on her face.

"I'll let you get back to work," said Olivia as she got up from her seat.

"I'll do some discreet probing to find out what kind of resources a NSA Director has at his/her disposal…"

When Abby mentioned "NSA Director", a thought came to Olivia's mind. "You know, Abby, hold off. I think I might have another way to get the answer we need without you ruffling the White House bureaucracy to find it. However, if my plan doesn't work, you'll need to make those calls."

"Just let me know, Liv."

Olivia left Abby's office to head back up to the Residence. She immediately went to her room to call Quinn.

"Hey, Liv, I was about to call you. Charlie seems to making some headway with hacker magic in getting access to Jake's personal "untraceable" bank account. He thinks we might be able break into the account…"

"That's great, Quinn. While Charlie is dealing with breaking into Jake's secret personal bank account, I want you track down former NSA Director Diane Peters and ask her if she would be willing to talk to us…"

"Oh, I don't know, Liv. We didn't do a good job in handling her case and she ended up having to resign as NSA Director…"

"I know it's a long shot that she would be willing to talk us but it is a back door channel to getting info on NSA operations which is what we need right now." Olivia was also aware Diane would be bound with confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements in that Diane couldn't simply talk outright about NSA operations but with the right probing questions, she might be get a "picture" of things and use that information to dig around.

Olivia paused before saying "Just find her contact information and I'll get in touch with her. It was my fault that she ultimately had to resign because I didn't do the right thing the last time." When she found out Jake had been responsible for hacking into Diane's laptop and the murder of Diane's boyfriend, rather than going to the White House with the information, she had followed her father's "instructions" to get power and ended up being Mellie's campaign manager instead. Olivia would like to think if she hadn't been afflicted with the brain tumor, all the crazy bad decisions she made wouldn't happened.

"I'll track down Diane Peters and get her information to you. I'll give you call when we get into Jake's bank account."

"Thanks, Quinn."

After Olivia finished her call with Quinn, she waited for Teddy to come back from playing outside so they could continue on building Teddyville. When Teddy got back, the two of them worked on expanding Teddyville by building a "main street" filled with stores and shops. Later, Olivia and the kids got another cooking lesson from Michelle where they learned to prepare a "streamlined" roast turkey dinner that would be suitable for weeknight meal – a boneless turkey breast served with roasted butternut squash and sautéed broccoli with garlic and a blueberry crisp for dessert.

Since it was the summer, the White House hosted much fewer receptions and dinners and Olivia was using this time to her advantage to get more comfortable to be in the kitchen cooking with tutoring support from the White House kitchen staff. She already spoke with Chef Giles about learning how to bake cookies and brownies from scratch. She suspected Teddy would want to be there for the baking lessons and Karen might be interested as well.

Later that night, after finishing their roast turkey dinner, Teddy asked if both "Daddy and Lib could read him a bedtime story" to which Olivia said yes. While Fitz gave Teddy his bath, Olivia got Teddy's pajamas from his room and passed them to Fitz in the bathroom. After Teddy settled into bed, Olivia joined them in Teddy's bedroom. Teddy sat between Olivia and Fitz as the three of them took turns reading Teddy's bedtime story, with Olivia and Fitz helping Teddy learning to pronounce words he didn't know.

As they were reading the bedtime story, Fitz, rather than allowing the knowledge of Olivia's abortion to darken the moment, he focused on the possibility of him and Olivia having children together and the two of them reading bedtime stories to them. Although he was allowing himself to be optimistic about the possibility of him and Olivia being together, he also knew he and Olivia needed to talk about their relationship so they wouldn't make the same mistakes again.

When they done reading Teddy's bedtime story, Fitz tucked Teddy into bed and gave him a kiss before Olivia and Fitz wished him a good night. The two of them headed to the living room knowing Karen would be waiting for them so they could go over drafts of her college essays. When they got to the living room, Karen was already sitting on the sofa and the coffee table was covered with paper.

The essay component of Karen's college applications varied with some schools only asking for one while others had multiple ones asking different questions. With some of the applications, the essay question or topic were similar to each other and for those applications, Karen was using one essay. Since there was a number of draft essays to go over, the three of them decided rather than reviewing all of them in one night, they would go over a handful of them each night until they got through all of them as well as going over the revised versions.

As they spent the next hour working together, Fitz was enjoying the moment of him and Olivia being a sort of "parental team" in helping Karen with her college application essays. He thought about them helping their own children with their schoolwork and/or homework. When they were done, Karen thanked both Olivia and Fitz for their help and wished them a good night before she headed back to her room.

After Karen left, Fitz asked "A drink out on the balcony before we turn in?"

"Sure."

"Why don't you head out to the balcony and I'll get our drinks."

As Olivia walked towards the door leading out the Truman Balcony, Fitz headed to the bar to pour their drinks.

Olivia sat down on the patio sofa when she got out to the balcony. As she waited for Fitz to come out with their drinks, Olivia felt tears welling up in her eyes. Being with Fitz as they put Teddy to bed and helped Karen with her college application essays gave her a glimpse as to what family life could be like for them. While what she and Fitz were experiencing was an ideal state at the moment – a cooperative pre-schooler and a non-temperamental teenager – and there would be moments dealing with cranky school age children who didn't want to do their homework or go to bed, not to mention the rebellious adolescent testing parental restraint and control, but somehow there would be enough happy moments to offset the hair-tearing, blood-pressure raising moments. Both she and Fitz could have been on the start of that journey together at the end of last year but instead, she made a very different choice and now, she was trying to "course correct" for what happened.

Fitz came out with the balcony holding a glass of red wine in one hand and a tumbler of scotch in the other hand. As Olivia took the glass of red wine from him, he noticed Olivia's tear filled eyes. After sitting down and setting down his tumbler of scotch on the side table next to the patio sofa, he turned his attention to Olivia and asked "Livie, what's wrong?" as he took the glass of red wine from Olivia's hand and set it down on the table in front of the sofa.

Olivia wasn't able to hold back the tears and simply allowed them to flow from her eyes. Fitz took her in his arms while mindful of Olivia's broken arm to comfort her. In the safety of Fitz's arms, Olivia broke down as she kept repeating the words "I'm sorry." Olivia's tears and her repeating the words "I'm sorry" pierced Fitz's heart and brought him to tears as well. The two of them just held each other as they cried. Fitz didn't know if Olivia was sorry about their breakup, the abortion, or both but it didn't matter. For Fitz, he was shedding his bravado about the abortion and allowed himself to feel the pain of Olivia's choice. While he needed to be respectful of her choice but it was choice he wished Olivia had not made.

They did not know how much time passed when their tears finally stopped. Fitz sat back against the sofa cushion with his arm around Olivia as she rested her head on his shoulder. After a few minutes sitting out on the balcony, both of them wanted to be cocoon in the privacy and safety of a bed. They got up from the patio sofa with Fitz carrying their drinks as they headed to Fitz's bedroom.

When they were in Fitz's bedroom, Fitz set down drinks on the bedside table next to his side of the bed and then went to the walk-in closet. When he came back to the bedroom, he was holding a short-sleeve button casual shirt and handed it to Olivia. "You can change into this so you don't wrinkle your clothes."

Olivia took the shirt and proceeded to get undress while Fitz pulled back the covers of the bed. As Fitz was pulling back the covers on the bed, Olivia tried not to think about the women who shared the bed with him after their breakup. She knew she had no moral superior position since she was the one who walked away and left Fitz alone.

After Fitz finished pulling back the covers, he began to strip down to his boxer shorts. Olivia watched Fitz take off his clothes and when she saw his semi-nude body with its chiseled chest, 6-pack abs and the overall well-toned muscles, she silently laid her personal claim to Fitzgerald Grant III and heaven help any woman who dared to take him away from her.

When Fitz got settled into bed, he noticed Olivia was wearing only her bra and panties but hadn't put on the short sleeve shirt he had given her. Seeing Olivia only in her underwear was fueling his libido but Fitz knew he had to keep it in check for the time being. They needed to work through things to get their relationship back on track before the sex and lovemaking.

As much as she wanted to have Fitz, Olivia didn't want their "first time making love after their breakup" with her having a broken arm. She wanted to be able to touch Fitz completely with both her hands but with her arm in a cast she wasn't able to do that. Olivia was already making plans in her head as to what she wanted to have happen when she and Fitz would make love as a reconciled couple. Realizing she was wearing only her bra and panties, she proceeded to dress herself with the shirt and after putting on the shirt, she put the sling back on her arm.

After Olivia got into bed, she and Fitz shifted their bodies so that Fitz could hold her while accommodating for her broken arm as they settled against the pillows that were propped against the headboard.

"I love you, Livie," said Fitz before pressing a kiss on Olivia's forehead.

"I love you, too, Fitz."

Even though Fitz hadn't pressed her into talking about the baby and the abortion, she knew they had to. As Olivia was trying to find a way to start the conversation, Fitz was the one who started the conversation by saying "I haven't wanted to talk about the baby and the abortion because I was afraid to find out if the reason why you didn't want to have the baby was because of me. That is, you didn't want to have children with me."

"It wasn't about you. It was about us. Our relationship was at a bad place at the time. You didn't trust me because I let my father out of prison and I was angry at you for turning me into some watched prisoner and becoming resentful because of it. I don't know if the tumor affected my thinking in thinking we couldn't work through the problems we were having and the only way out was for us to break up, and had I told you about the baby, I wouldn't have been able to leave. My focus was getting out rather than trying to make things work for us."

Olivia hoped what she told Fitz eased his concerns and fears about her not wanting to have his children. She also knew she needed to let Fitz know what she wanted. "Fitz, I do want to be with you and making the promise I am in this with you. I want us, kids, Vermont, and jam.

As she snuggled closer to Fitz, Olivia said "When I was coming out of the coma, I saw us in Vermont with our four kids along with Karen and Teddy. You are not a town mayor but I do make a serious kick-ass strawberry jam."

Fitz chuckled at Olivia's statement about her strawberry jam. "Yes, you do," he concurred before kissing her temple.

Fitz also knew he had a role in their breakup when he "rushed" their relationship before Olivia was ready. Even though his desire to make Olivia his wife and First Lady before his presidency ended motivated his action but instead it only helped to fuel their breakup. "We'll make it work, Livie. We'll go slow. Slow and steady and we'll make it to Vermont." With that said, Olivia nodded and smiled as she lay against Fitz with his arms around her.


	24. A Fixed Presidential Ticket Unravels

While Olivia and Fitz were at the White House embarking on their path to heal their relationship and to finding Vermont again, Charlie was sitting on top of his car hood as he waited in an underground parking garage. When he saw a car enter into the area, Charlie was on heightened alert not knowing if the car was his scheduled rendezvous, someone who was simply coming into the garage to park, or someone who one was planning to cause trouble for him and Quinn. He and Quinn spent yesterday and today gathering information about Jake and his possible role in starting a fake paternity suit involving Fitz. In the course of their digging, both he and Quinn were aware it was possible that triggers might be raised and it would get back to Jake. If that were to happen, they knew Jake might take measures to stop them so the truth wouldn't come out.

When the car pulled up next to his car and a man in a dark suit wearing an earphone got out of the passenger door to open the backdoor, Charlie relaxed and knew it was his scheduled rendezvous. Cyrus emerged out of the car holding a manila envelope in his hand and approached Charlie. They exchanged brief hellos before getting to the core of their meeting.

"Here is the material Olivia wanted," said Cyrus as he handed the manila envelope to Charlie. While Olivia arranged with Charlie to pick up the envelope, Cyrus didn't know if Olivia debriefed Charlie as to what was in the envelope. "Did Olivia tell you what you would be picking up?"

"No. Should I know what is inside the envelope?" Charlie learned from Quinn that Olivia had a brain tumor that caused her to behave and to make decisions out of character. Even though she had the tumor removed, Quinn told him Olivia might have emotional and psychological changes and they might need to keep an eye on Olivia in case these changes caused her to do things that would result in harm. If Cyrus was giving Olivia something that she could use to be destructive in a negative way, Charlie felt he needed to know so he and Quinn could try to pre-empt Olivia from doing it. "Is it something we need to be worried about? Does this involve the destruction of the world or the human race?" he asked.

"Nothing that extreme but I'm still trying to figure out why Olivia would want it."

"Who's going to get screwed if the info in this envelope gets out?" Charlie asked as he held up the envelope in his hand.

Cyrus thought for a moment on the possible consequences if the information inside the manila envelope became publicly known and who had the most to lose. "It would have to be Mellie. Maybe that's the reason why Olivia wants it. To prevent Mellie from getting screwed over, or at least spare her embarrassment if it became public." Even though he was Mellie's opponent in the presidential election, the information in the manila envelope was of little value to him and Vargas in terms of defeating Mellie in the election.

Charlie kept his silence when he heard Cyrus's comment. Charlie knew about the fixed Republican Party presidential ticket from Quinn and Olivia was trying to find some way to get herself officially removed as Mellie's campaign manager. If what was he was holding in hand would hurt Mellie it meant Olivia found her way out.

Around 2AM, both Olivia and Fitz were rudely awakened from their sleep by the sound of their cell phones ringing on the bedside tables next to their respective sides of the bed. When they reached over to get their phones, Fitz saw it was Mellie calling him while Huck was calling Olivia.

Fitz had left a message with Mellie asking her to call him. They needed to talk about the presence of Rowan and his team around Teddy when they got back to DC. Remembering Alaska was 4 hours behind DC and Mellie may have forgotten about the time zone difference, he was giving Mellie a pass with calling at 2AM DC time. While Fitz proceeded to answer Mellie's call in bed, Olivia moved off the bed and walked over to the sitting area to answer Huck's call.

"Mellie."

"Fitz, something has happen," said Mellie in a controlled but alarmed voice. "You need to call me back on a secure line from the Oval. Olivia also needs to be on the call."

"All right," he said before ending the call.

As Fitz was getting out of bed, Olivia ended her call with Huck. She turned her attention to Fitz and said "That was Huck. He said we need to call them back on secure line."

While Fitz headed into the walk-in closet to put on a pair of jeans and a polo shirt, Olivia was getting dressed in the clothes she was wearing earlier. After Fitz put on a pair of slippers and Olivia slipped into her heels, they left the bedroom. They took the elevator down to get to the Oval. Once they were in the Oval, Fitz sat down at his chair behind the Resolute Desk while Olivia sat in the chair to side of the desk. He turned on the desk lamp before calling Mellie back. After dialing Mellie's cell phone number, Fitz put the phone on speaker so Olivia could be part of the call. The call was answered after one ring.

"Fitz?" asked Mellie.

"It's me."

"Is Olivia with you?"

"I'm here, Mellie," replied Olivia. "What's happened?"

"Both Jake and Rowan are dead…"

"What?!" exclaimed Fitz and Olivia at the same time. "Was there an accident?" asked Fitz.

"No. I wish it had been an accident. We heard shots fired. Couple of my agents kept Huck, Marcus, and me in lock down in my suite while the others went to investigate. The shots had come from a room that Rowan and Jake were in. Jake's Secret Service agents were trying to get to him but door was locked so the agents had the break down the door. When they got inside, Jake began shooting at the agents. The only thing the agents could do was to shoot back. When it was all over, the agents found Rowan had been shot dead."

Fitz asked "Did Rowan have a gun?"

"The agents didn't find one with him. They think the shots we heard was Jake shooting Rowan."

"Why did Jake shoot my father?" asked Olivia.

"I don't know. I know Jake and your father have been fighting since the Santa Barbara trip. Huck, Marcus, and I have been keeping our distance from your father and Jake so we have been staying in one wing of a hotel floor while Jake and your father and their people have been staying in another wing," replied Mellie. Mellie paused before saying "Fitz, there's going to be huge investigation. The FBI is going to be involved because of Jake's position as VP candidate and as NSA Director. There will be questions about Rowan and his role in the campaign. The fixed party ticket could be discovered…"

"I understand, Mellie. After we get off the phone, I'll make calls. What's happening now? Has the local police been called?"

"The Secret Service agents have the bodies and the room secured. When the first shots got fired, the agents called the local police for backup. The agents are dealing with the local police now."

"Ok. We'll start the process of damage control and do what we need to do make sure certain things don't become known."

"Thank you, Fitz."

"Your welcome, Mellie," said Fitz before he ended the call with Mellie.

As soon the call with Mellie ended, the phone buzzed to let Fitz to let him know he had an incoming call. When he answered the buzz, the White House operator said "Mr. President, CIA Director Lowry is on the line."

"Put her through."

A moment later Fitz was connected with CIA Director Marsha Lowry. "Mr. President, there has been an incident in Alaska…"

"I know. I just spoke to Senator Grant on the phone and she told me about the shooting."

"Mr. President, we need to implement to measures to contain the situation. We need you here at Langley…"

"I'll be there in 30 minutes."

"We'll see you then, Mr. President," said Marsha before their call ended.

As much Fitz and Olivia wanted time to process the news they were given, they didn't have the luxury because they were in crisis mode. Before heading back to up to Residence, Fitz notified the Secret Service agents on duty for him that evening he would be on the move heading to Langley. They both headed back up to the Residence and after they got off the elevator, Olivia said "Huck gave me a burner phone to use in case of emergencies. I'm going to call him. He might have more info than what Mellie knows or has. I'm going to my room to get it. I'll meet you back in your room."

Olivia then headed off to her guest room while Fitz walked towards to his bedroom. As Olivia walked to her room, she was trying to come to terms that both her father and Jake were dead and Jake killed her father. Emotionally, she wasn't feeling any anger towards Jake for what he did and she wasn't sad or experiencing grief for her father being dead. She rationalized her lack of "expected" or "normal" emotions with the situation was the harm and havoc her father had caused and the potential harm that he and Jake would have inflicted had they been in charge of the White House and the Oval. Whether or not the CIA's plan to take down her father would have been enough to "neutralize" situation, that is, Jake wouldn't have been able to act on his own without her father, she didn't know. However, her father regarded Jake as his "son" and Jake may have even held status as the "favorite" son, it meant her father saw Jake capable of being molded into his image. If that was the case, Jake would have been capable to act on his own without her father being around. The fact Jake shot and killed her father showed he no longer had any loyalty to her father anymore.

After retrieving the burner cell phone out of her handbag, Olivia returned to Fitz's room. When she walked inside the room, Olivia saw that Fitz had quickly changed out his jeans and polo shirt into a dress shirt which he was tucking into his suit pants. She saw the matching suit blazer on top of the bed and a tie draped on top of the blazer. After he was done tucking his shirt and zipping and buttoning up his pants, Fitz proceeded to tie his tie. As he was tying his tie, he said "I'll call Abby and Susan while I'm in the SUV heading to Langley. They will need to call David and Liz to have them come in."

When Fitz was finished dressing, he said "We are probably going to need to have a secret group meeting when I get back from Langley." Olivia nodded her head in agreement. Before Fitz left the room, he gave Olivia a quick kiss and stroked her cheek with his thumb.

After Fitz left, Olivia turned on the burner cell phone. Huck arranged for the phone to have his burner cell phone number already programmed into it and Olivia called the programmed number. Huck answered the call on the first ring.

"Liv?"

"It's me, Huck. Mellie told us about the shooting. She mentioned that Jake and my father have been fighting. What do you know about it?"

"It was about you. Even though Mellie, Marcus, and I have been keeping our distance from your father, Jake, and their people, I was also keeping an eye on them so to avoid any possible trouble with them. Jake has been angry with your father for returning you to the President after your abduction. As a result, the two of them haven't been getting along. When Quinn told me you wanted to get intel on Jake, I figured out a way to plant some bugs in his hotel room and in other rooms he was using. I managed to get back to my room to listen to the recordings to find out exactly what happened during the shooting. You were right about Jake being responsible for starting the story about the President's paternity suit. Your father figured it out and confronted Jake about it. The fighting escalated between them. Jake must have had a gun on him when he was with your father…"

"Do you think it was premeditated since Jake had a gun with him when he was with my father?"

"Maybe, but since he is dead, we'll never know for sure. I'm going need to find a way to get into the rooms to remove the bugs so the investigators won't find them. Do you know what's happening with that?"

"The CIA knows about the shooting. They called Fitz in for an emergency meeting to deal with damage control. They have a plan in place. I guess the CIA is going to be sending in a clean-up team to Alaska."

"Knowing the CIA, they are already on their way. Once the media finds out about the shooting, we are going to be swarmed with reporters and TV cameras. Liv, I'm going get off the phone. I need to get the bugs out of the rooms before the CIA gets here. I'll keep you posted on what's happening."

"Ok."

After Olivia and Huck ended their call, Olivia sat down on the sofa in the sitting area. Even though it was getting close to 3AM, she decided not to go back to sleep since she knew she couldn't sleep. Olivia set the burner cell phone on the coffee table and got up to walk to the bed. She picked up Fitz's pillow and carried it with her as she walked back to the sitting area. After sitting back down on the sofa, Olivia held the pillow against her as she took in Fitz's scent. Holding Fitz's pillow close to her gave Olivia a small measure of comfort with the hours remained before the sun rose as they dealt with the aftermath of Jake's and her father's shooting deaths.


	25. Bringing In The Troops

**Posted on**

 **Some of my author's note comments are repeated from my** **Jam and Vermont in DC** **latest update (in case you are following both stories).**

 **Author's Note:**

 **Sorry for the long delay updating this story. As always, I appreciate fellow fan fic writers and readers for their support for this story.**

 **While work has been diverted my attention from the writing, I also confess my Olitz writing muses abandoned me when Scandal season 6 started up. While I tuned into season 6 via Hulu for Episodes 9 through 13 (hence the resurrection of the muses, especially from Episodes 10 and 11), I didn't watch any other episodes, which included the 2-hour season finale. After reading an assortment episode re-caps/synopsis and watching an assortment of YouTube clips about the 2-hour season finale on the internet, I am more than resolved to not to watch the season finale and not to follow Season 7. As a die-hard Olitz-shipper, I feel after traveling through a desert, I finally found an oasis (from Episodes 10-11) but only to find out it was mirage (from season finale).**

 _ **About the latest installment to the story:**_

 **Even though this fanfic is Olitz-centric, I wanted to write a short installment featuring some of the other** _ **Scandal**_ **couples as well as creating a fan fic pairing.**

 **While I think it is great that SR and her production team create strong smart women characters, but in contrast to the world of Shondaland, I'm too much of a romance writer to not want these women to be paired off with strong smart men who are supportive of their accomplishments and talents.**

 **I wrote this installment long before the premiere of Scandal Season 6, so Abby remains the Abby we all know and love and Liz North is alive, well, and a much better person in my fanfic story.**

As Olivia sat on the sitting area sofa in Fitz's bedroom, she debated on whether to call Quinn to let her know what was happening in Alaska. Even though it was little bit after 3AM and Quinn and Charlie would be sleeping, Olivia knew Quinn wouldn't appreciate being kept of out of the loop, especially, if it was situation that involved her fellow gladiators. Olivia picked up burner phone and called Quinn.

"Hello?" asked Quinn with a suspicious voice. She hadn't recognized the number that appeared on her regular phone.

"Quinn, it's me. Something has happened. Turn on your burner phone so we can talk."

"Ok. I'll call you back on my burner," said Quinn before she ended the call.

Couple of minutes later, Olivia's burner phone rang.

"Quinn?"

"Yeah. What's going on?"

"Jake and my father are dead," said Olivia. She then proceeded to tell Quinn what she knew so far about the shooting.

"What do you need us to do? Should Charlie and I go to Alaska to help Huck and Marcus?"

"No," said Olivia firmly. "Fitz has gone to meet with the CIA. They are putting together a clean-up plan. I'll know more when he gets back."

"All right," said Quinn with a resigned voice. She preferred to be doing something when OPA was confronted with a crisis rather than waiting but they were dealing with a delicate complicated situation which required careful handling.

"As I soon as I know more, I'll call you back."

"Ok. We'll talk later," said Quinn before ending her call with Olivia.

Quinn turned to her attention to Charlie, who was sitting up after being awakened with the initial phone, and said, "You are not going to believe this. Jake shot Rowan."

"What?!" exclaimed Charlie.

"Rowan found out Jake was behind the fake presidential paternity suit and the two of them got into a fight. Jake must have had a gun on him and shot Rowan when the fight got ugly. Secret Service heard the shot and thought Jake was in trouble. They broke down the door to the room where Jake and Rowan were in. When the agents got inside, Jake started shooting at them…"

"Oh, shit. He must have lost it," commented Charlie. In Charlie's assessment, Jake shooting Rowan had been foolhardy but to shoot at Secret Service agents was crazy.

"I guess."

"What's happening now?"

"The president is meeting with CIA to implement a clean-up plan."

"Does Olivia need us to do anything? Should we contact Huck?"

"She told me that we should sit tight until she finds out what the CIA and the president plan to do."

"Ok," responded Charlie. With him and Quinn in "crisis fixer" mode and not going back to sleep, Charlie located the TV remote on his bedside table and turned on the TV to channel surf to find out if the world had caught wind on what happened in Alaska so they could plan accordingly.

Leo was sitting up in bed watching Abby talk on her work cell phone with Fitz as she pulled out a work suit out of her closet. He knew Abby was getting ready to go in to the White House when he saw the work suit come out of the closet.

Both he and Abby had been sleeping soundly when her White House cell phone rang. While Leo knew a slightly after 3AM White House call meant something serious happened, it didn't always necessitate Abby going in unless it was an emergency. If Abby needed to go in, it was bad.

When Abby ended her call with Fitz, she said to Leo, "I'm sorry…"

"I know. You need to go in and you can't tell me why."

"I can tell you a part of it – Jake and Olivia's father Rowan are dead. But, I can't tell you anymore."

With Abby's last statement, Leo knew he couldn't ask what happened because Abby couldn't tell him. Leo suspected things were being done to tightly control the narrative of their deaths and Abby would be apprise of what was being done given her position as White House Chief of Staff. He, along with the public, would be given an "official" story about their deaths while an "unofficial" true story would be kept secret. "I understand," responded Leo.

As he was getting out of bed, he said, 'I'll be in living room while you get dressed and call David. I'm presuming David needs to be contacted."

"He does." As Leo walked passed Abby, she gave him a kiss. After their kiss, Abby said, "Thank you," before he walked out of the bedroom. Leo closed the bedroom door to give Abby privacy to talk with David.

When Abby was left alone in the room, Abby called David and put her phone on speaker so she could talk while she got ready.

Over at One Observatory Circle, the official residence of the Vice President, in Susan's bedroom, both Susan and David were wide awake talking on the phone. Susan was speaking with Fitz on her bedroom landline phone while David was standing in a corner of the bedroom talking on his cell phone with Abby so the noise of the two calls didn't overlap each other.

After David ended his call with Abby, he started to get dress. While David was doing a silent happy dance with the news of Rowan's death, he also knew it was Rowan's nefarious act of blackmailing or threatening the White House team to make the trip to Santa Barbara helped him to reconcile with Susan. The flight back to DC on Susan's Air Force Two, the official plane for the Vice President, brought them closer as the two of them worked together to handle the White House press corps who flew with them on the flight. The press corps wanted and expected to fly back with Fitz on Air Force One. They had to tag team to deflect the press corps' less than friendly attitude about having to fly back with the Vice President instead of the President.

David had been so focused on getting dressed quickly he hadn't noticed Susan was still sitting on the bed after she finished her call with Fitz. It was until he went over to floor length mirror so he could tie his tie that he saw the reflection of Susan sitting on the bed. David walked over the bed and sat down next to her. "Honey, are you ok?" he asked.

"I had wished him dead," Susan replied in a stunned shocked voice as she turned to look at David.

"It's ok, sweetheart. No one would blame you for wanting Rowan dead. He was a nasty son of a bitch," said David as he took Susan in his arms to give her a hug to comfort her. He knew Susan was a good and kind person and wanting someone dead was contrary to her personal nature but in this case, her desire was justified.

When they broke away from their hug, Susan said "I don't know what to say to Olivia when I see her."

"You don't have to say anything. Olivia knows what kind of man her father was. I'm sure there is no remorse on her part."

Susan wasn't so convinced from David's comments but figured she would have a better idea of what to say to Olivia when she saw Olivia in person. Susan knew she had a tendency of putting her foot in her mouth and this was one of the times she needed to be careful on what she would say. At least her relationship with Olivia was better now. Olivia apologized to her for her behavior and for what happened with the Republican Party presidential ticket.

Susan realized precious time was ticking away and both she and David needed to get to the White House. "I need to get dress," she said as she started to get up from the bed. "Wait, before I do that, I need to call my on-duty agents to let them know we are on the move." Susan then picked up the handset to call the agents' duty room to let them know she and David needed to go to White House. While Susan was speaking with her agent, David proceeded over to the mirror so he could tie his tie.

When they were dressed, Susan and David left her bedroom and headed into the hallway. After they walked passed Casey's bedroom, Casey, wearing a nightgown, came out of her bedroom. She saw Susan and David were heading out and asked, "Mom, David, where are you guys going?"

Susan and David stopped walking and turned their attention to Casey. While David stood still, Susan walked to Casey and said to her, "Something has happened. The President needs David and me at the White House."

"I suppose it's a big secret and you can't tell me," said Casey.

"It's something serious and right now it is a secret but it won't be in a few hours. When it becomes public, we can talk about it, ok, sweetie?"

"Ok, Mom," said Casey with a weak smile. "I guess three of us won't be having breakfast together."

Susan looked at David and the of two them exchanged a knowing glance that holding key roles in the running of the US government sometimes meant domestic or family life would have to take a backseat.

"Probably. I'm sorry about that. David and I will make up to you, though"

"It's fine, Mom. Maybe we can do pizza and movie night once the government crisis is over."

"It's deal. I promise," said Susan before giving Casey a hug and a kiss. As Casey went back inside to her bedroom, Susan and David headed down to the front door. When they got down to the front door, an agent was standing waiting for them. The agent opened the front door for Susan and David to walk out and enter into Susan's unmarked car which was waiting outside for them.

Once they were settled inside the car, Susan said, "I need to call Liz," as she pulled out her White House cell phone to make the call.

Liz North was sleeping soundly in her bed with a strong male arm protectively draped over when her work cell phone rang. She picked up the phone and saw it was Susan calling her. She immediately sat up in bed to answer the call causing the arm that was draped over her to fall.

"Madam Vice President" Liz said as she turned on the lamp by her bedside table.

"Liz, I'm sorry to wait you, but you need to come in. There's been an incident on Mellie's campaign trail. Jake and Rowan are dead," said Susan in a dead serious voice.

"Oh my God! What happened?!" exclaimed Liz in a loud voice. Although the phone call awakened Liz's male companion, Liz's exclamation had him sitting up as well.

"There was a shooting. We need to do the details in person though." Even though their cell phones had secured lines, both Susan and Liz knew the less spoken over the phone was better, especially given how sensitive the situation about the fixed Republican Party ticket was.

Of course. I'll be at the White House shortly," said Liz before they ended their call. Liz then turned her head and saw the serious expression on Paul Ellison's face.

"What's happened, Liz?"

"I can't tell you. I'm sorry."

"It's ok. I understand." As a military man, Paul was more than familiar with the concepts of secrecy and confidentiality, especially when it came to matters of the state. "I'll drive you over to the White House," he said as he got out of bed and started putting on his clothes.

"Thank you." Liz then got out of bed so she could get dressed as well.

Liz counted her blessings that her daughter Jane was having a sleep over at a friend so she didn't have to worry needing to find child care before the crack of dawn. Even though she was the Vice President Chief of Staff, she had been fortunate enough not needing to be call into the White House during the middle of the night for emergencies. When she had been traveling or working late for Susan's presidential nominee campaign, she made the necessary arrangements for a live-in nanny to care for Jane during those times. The fact Jane was at a friend's home afforded Liz the opportunity for her to invite Paul to spend the night with her.

Liz knew Paul for a number of years through the world of Republican Party politics. Although Paul wasn't in politics or in any profession related to politics, like law, his family was heavily involved in politics. She also knew Paul's connection to Fitz wasn't just the two of them serving together in the Navy but it also stemmed from politics in that both Paul and Fitz were the scions of political families and Fitz's father, the late Governor and Senator Fitzgerald Grant II of California, aka Big Jerry and Paul's father, the late Congressman Steven Ellison from Michigan had been longstanding friends. Although Paul's family had been disappointed he hadn't followed the route of a legal-political career like so many his relatives, he had done the family proud with his military service and establishing a medical career on his own merits.

Liz considered Paul as her first proper relationship since her divorce. Although she had been involved with David, in hindsight, it had been a fling, perhaps one she had let it get out of hand. She had been lonely and David came across as someone in need of sex. The fact he had been so easily seduced confirmed her suspicion. However, what she hadn't expected was her boss having a sweet spot for David and David being charmed by her boss's homespun personality while simultaneously drawn to her as well. Nonetheless, she thought she would have come out ahead with her manipulating David and Susan with the outcome of Susan becoming POTUS and she would attain the coveted job of being White House Chief of Staff. Instead, all of them got burned. Initially, she blamed Olivia for what happened but when she found out it was Olivia's father who had been playing all of them like chess pieces, and especially after being blackmailed to go to Santa Barbara to campaign for Mellie, she had been humbled by a grand master of manipulation and the danger she had been in.

In her newly found humbled state, Paul approached her and invited her to have a drink with him. This was followed with a few coffee or lunch dates which lead to tonight's dinner date and the two of them spending the night together. Liz had hoped for the two of them to have breakfast together to continue on with the progress of their relationship now they were in the phase of having sex as part of their relationship. She wanted their relationship to be more than a "friends with benefit" arrangement.

Liz got her glimpse of hope of there being something more to their relationship when Paul, after stopping his Mercedes in front of the White House West Wing gates so she could get out, asked, "I'm not on duty today but can I call you later? Or will it be too crazy for you talk?"

"Call me," replied Liz before she gave him a kiss and got out of Paul's car. As Liz walked passed the security booth and headed towards the West Wing entrance, she felt a warm glow from the kiss but was also feeling the cold reality of the White House was about deal with. She knew there would be plenty for her and Paul to talk about once the news about the shooting and the death of the NSA Director-Republican Party Vice Presidential candidate became known.


	26. Price of Fixing a Fixed Ticket

**Posted on**

 **Author's Note:**

I'm taking artistic liberty on the state of Jake's and Vanessa's marriage.

As Fitz was making his journey to CIA headquarters at Langley, CIA Director Marsha Lowry along with Victoria and the other overseers were already assembled in the CIA version of a "Situation Room" putting together a plan to "handle" Jake's and Rowan's shooting deaths and to prevent any discovery of the fixed Republican Party presidential ticket. Jake's and Rowan's shooting deaths were an unexpected turn of events. Even though Victoria deployed a small team of agents to follow Mellie's and Jake's campaign trail from California to Alaska and they, referring to Marsha and the overseers, were getting reports from the field agents about the tension and conflict between Jake and Rowan because of Olivia, no one expected Jake would shoot Rowan during a heated argument and Jake would be a victim of "suicide by cop" – engaging Secret Service agents in a deliberate gun fight that would result in his death.

Fortunately, with field agents in Alaska, the agents were immediately deployed to work with the Secret Service agents. Marsha was in communication with the head of Secret Service and FBI Director John Greeley about the situation. The immediate goal was to contain the situation and to control the narrative about the shooting with the media. John contacted the local FBI agent who was the liaison with local law enforcement to smooth things with local law enforcement as the feds took over the "case" and requiring local law enforcement to be embargoed from speaking with the media.

As part of the controlling the narrative of the shooting was addressing the issues of Rowan's presence and involvement with the Grant-Ballard campaign and the cause of the shooting. Addressing the issue of Rowan's presence and involvement with the campaign was foremost - how Rowan's presence and involvement would be handled would dictate the story explaining the shooting.

Had the CIA or its allies followed through on their intended "take-down" plans after the campaign trip, Rowan's involvement with the campaign would not needed to be explained, that is, his involvement would have been kept as a secret. However, with the shooting taking place during the trip, Marsha and the overseers needed to decide to whether to cover-up Rowan's presence on the campaign trail. If they were to cover-up Rowan's presence they would need to make sure all loose ends would be tied up to prevent disclosure. As part of their assessment was to determine who already knew of Rowan's presence, if those who know could be trusted to maintain the secret, and who would need to be "eliminated" to keep the secret. As Marsha and the overseers reviewed the people who knew about Rowan's presence on the campaign trail, there was one name that came up who would pose a problem in keeping it a secret. If the decision was made to keep Rowan's presence and involvement with campaign a secret, this person would need to be eliminated. However, the CIA would only do it if Fitz authorized it. If Fitz didn't want any blood to be shed, they would need to come up with a "cover story" to explain Rowan's presence and involvement with the campaign.

When Fitz arrived at Langley and entered into the room where Marsha and the overseers were meeting, she and the overseers stood up and greeted Fitz. After Fitz took an empty seat at the table and directed everyone to sit down, Marsha and the overseers proceeded to give their assessment and analysis of the situation, and all of them started to put in motion a "clean-up" plan.

While Fitz was working with the CIA putting together a clean-up plan, Olivia was dozing on the sofa in Fitz's bedroom. She was awakened when she heard a knock on the bedroom door. She was half expecting to see Abby when she opened the bedroom door but instead saw a Marine guard. Olivia knew Marine guards held the responsibility of guarding the White House which included the Residence and wondered if something happened.

"Ms. Pope, I'm sorry to disturb you but Teddy's nanny needs help with Teddy," said the young guard.

"What's the matter with Teddy?" asked Olivia in a slightly alarmed voice. She hoped Teddy wasn't having a medical emergency. Dealing with the shooting while having to cope with a very sick child at the same time was the last thing Fitz needed now.

"It seems he woke up from having a bad dream and his nanny is having trouble calming him down," replied the guard. "I told Jenn that the President left the White House to attend to an emergency but the information only seemed to distress Teddy more."

"All right. I'll head over to Teddy's room to see if I can help."

The guard nodded his head and Olivia left the bedroom to go to Teddy's bedroom. When she walked into Teddy's room, she saw Teddy crying and Jenn not having much success in consoling him.

"Lib, where's Daddy?" asked Teddy in a slightly hysterical voice.

"Your Daddy needed to go to an emergency meeting. He'll be back as soon as he can," replied Olivia as she sat down on Teddy's bed. Seeing that Olivia was sitting on his bed, Teddy shifted his body from Jenn to Olivia so Olivia could hold him. Since Olivia was limited with only one good arm, Teddy had to settle sitting on Olivia's lap with her good arm wrapped around him. He rested his head on Olivia's chest and started to calm down.

"Jenn, why don't you go back to bed? I'll stay here Teddy."

Jenn nodded her head and said "Good night, Ms. Pope. Good night, Teddy" and left Olivia and Teddy alone in his bedroom.

"What happened, Teddy? Why are you so upset?"

"I had a bad dream. Daddy got shot by the bad men who are with Mommy. Jenn heard me crying for Daddy." Since Teddy's room was in a separate wing from Fitz's room, Olivia knew she wouldn't have heard Teddy's crying.

"Your Daddy is fine. He'll be back when he is done with his meeting," said Olivia in with reassuring voice and a weak smile. "Why don't you go back to sleep? I'll stay here with you until you do, ok?"

Teddy nodded his head and settled back into bed with his head resting on his pillow and a blanket covering him. Olivia lay next to him allowing Teddy to curl up next to her body and her good arm wrapped around him. A few minutes later, a relaxed Teddy fell asleep with Olivia holding him. Rather than separating herself from Teddy and returning to Fitz's bedroom, she decided to stay with Teddy and soon found herself dozing off.

It was around 5:30AM when Olivia heard a gentle knock on Teddy's bedroom door which was followed with "Liv, it's Abby," in a low but audible voice.

Olivia gently separated herself from Teddy so not to disturb him and got off the bed to open the door. When she opened the door, Olivia saw Abby standing outside and walked out the bedroom while closing the door quietly behind her. The two of them then proceeded to walk down the hallway away from Teddy's room.

"I came up to look for you and one of the Marine guards said you were in Teddy's room. Is he ok?"

"Yeah. He woke up from having a bad dream and Jenn was having trouble calming him down. I stayed with him until he fell back asleep and dozed off," replied Olivia. "What's happening?"

"I got a call from Fitz. He is on his way back from Langley. We are meeting in the bunker. He and I think it is too risky for us to meet in the White House kitchen since the kitchen staff will be reporting to work soon. The remaining safe clandestine spot is the bunker. Are you ok with being in the bunker?" Abby knew the bunker was the site where Olivia bashed Andrew Nichols's head and didn't know if being in the place would be traumatic for Olivia. "Fitz said the two of you could meet privately in a secured place if you don't want to be in the bunker."

"I'm ok," responded Olivia. "If I start to feel uncomfortable, I'll step out."

"Ok."

"Is everyone else here?"

"Yeah. David, Susan, and Liz are in the mess having coffee and trying to find some kind of appropriate pre-breakfast snack to tie over until it is time for actual breakfast," replied Abby. The mess was the White House staff cafeteria and it had a coffee machine set out for staff members to make coffee while working late or odd hours.

When Fitz arrived back at the White House and walked into the bunker, he saw Olivia, Abby, David, Susan, and Liz sitting at the conference table drinking out of lidded paper coffee cups. Fitz took the empty head seat at the table to which Olivia was sitting in the right seat next to him and Abby was sitting in the left seat. As soon as he sat down, Olivia slid a lidded coffee cup filled with coffee to him. Fitz took a sip of coffee which was made the way he liked it before he spoke.

"The CIA already has a team of agents in Alaska. They've had a team of agents following the campaign trail from Santa Barbara to Alaska…"

"Not infiltrate?" asked David.

"No. They knew Rowan would suspect a possible infiltration," replied Fitz. "CIA, Secret Service, and FBI are working together to prevent local law enforcement from getting too close to the situation and the shooting is officially under federal investigation. The rest of the campaign trip is cancelled and Mellie, Huck, and Marcus are flying back immediately to DC with Jake's and Rowan's bodies. The CIA agents who are already in Alaska will remain behind to work with the local FBI to tie up loose ends while handling the story about the shooting will be coordinated here in DC."

"Has the media found out about the shooting? All you need is a local reporter who follows the police blotter or the police radio frequency to find out about the shooting and to start snooping around," said David.

"Before I left Langley, CIA and FBI were coordinating with local FBI in Alaska on handling the public announcement about the shooting."

Olivia asked the $64,000 question that was on everyone's mind in room "So what's the CIA's plan to handle the situation?"

"First, we aren't going to cover up Rowan's presence and involvement with the campaign. Obviously, the part about Rowan's role in fixing the ticket will be kept secret but his presence on the trail won't be. We can't. The CIA has evidence that Jake's wife Vanessa knows Rowan has been part of the campaign trail…"

"That would make sense. She is his wife. He probably mentioned it to her,' commented Susan.

"Yeah. With Vanessa knowing, she isn't going to keep it a secret. If we were to ask her not to mention it, she would ask why and which would raise more questions. The only way to prevent Vanessa from talking is to…"

Susan gasped before she said, "We can't do that. We can't be part of taking an innocent life to protect a political secret."

"I agree. That's why we have come up with a "cover story" to explain Rowan's presence on the trail. Rowan was a campaign volunteer which will be plausible and believable since his daughter is the campaign manager. But this is going to put a lot of attention on you, Olivia."

"I understand. I can deal with it," responded Olivia. "What about the shooting? What's the story that's going to be told to the media and the public?"

"We are using an element of truth – in Olivia's absence, Rowan took over the campaign and displaced Olivia's team to which Jake got into a disagreement with Rowan about it and Jake "snapped,"" replied Fitz.

"Vanessa isn't going to want her husband's image to be tarnished in death. She is going to challenge the characterization of her husband having gone crazy which prompted him to shoot a campaign volunteer," said Susan.

"But the fact that Jake opened fire on his own Secret Service agents, agents whose job was to protect him, would already suggest something wasn't right," countered Olivia.

"Susan has a point though – Vanessa may not willingly accept the story and there is a strong possibility she will dig to find out. She is capable of doing it with the resources she has on a professional level," commented Abby.

"Not unless she is told the public story is to hide a more damaging story as to what the disagreement was about," responded David.

"Such as?" asked Abby.

In following the CIA's cue of using an element of truth to create the cover story, Olivia answered with, "How about my father learned Jake was still carrying a torch for me and had been making the moves on me before my accident and confronted him about it. The fact Jake had such a violent response during the confrontation would suggest their marriage wasn't as strong as she thought it was. She might be less likely to push the matter if she cares about the image of her marriage."

She then added, "We won't need to do this unless Vanessa is insistent on challenging the public story."

"Has Vanessa been told Jake is dead?" asked Abby.

"Before I left Langley, the CIA and I called Mellie to tell her to call Vanessa to let her know about the shooting," replied Fitz. "Vanessa is probably still processing the news about Jake's death and still in shock. As this point, she might be "buying" the public story because she is in shock but once the shock wears off, she could challenge the story."

"Who is going to give Vanessa the off-the-record explanation for the confrontation between Jake and Rowan if she does challenge the public story?" asked Liz.

"It would need to be someone on the trail. Someone on the trail would know what the fight was about…," answered David.

"Mellie," declared Olivia. "If Vanessa hears it from Mellie, she might more willing to accept the story since Mellie has no personal loyalty to protect my image, as opposed to Huck or Marcus."

"Ok. We'll need to prep Mellie in case Vanessa challenges the public story," said Fitz.

With Jake's death, there were an assortment of issues that impacted the election and the White House and Fitz needed to bring them up. "With Jake dead, we have to figure what to do about the Republican Party VP slot. David, find out if ballots have been printed up. If they haven't, the Republican Party will need to identify a candidate to take Jake's spot on the ticket. Liz, make the calls with the Republican Party leaders to ask who they would be willing to support as a replacement candidate."

"All right," said Liz. "You know, if ballots have been printed up, Mellie might be running with a dead candidate as her running mate."

"I know," responded Fitz. "Let's hope they haven't been." Everyone in the room knew if ballots have been printed up, Mellie might be required to keep Jake's name on the ticket even though he was dead. Should Mellie win the election, she would have to appoint someone to be her vice president and the person would have to be confirmed by the Senate.

"Abby, work with Ethan to write a statement about Jake's death for me to deliver at the morning press briefing. Also, put together a list of names as possible candidates for NSA Director or at least interim Director. I'm going to need to pay a condolence visit to Vanessa sometime during the day."

"Of course," said Abby. The NSA Director was a key staff member in the White House and protocol would dictate a condolence call or visit from the President. In this case, since Fitz had been best man at Jake's and Vanessa's wedding, a personal visit would only be appropriate.

Fitz continued on, "Susan, make the calls to the Senate leaders to find out what's the likelihood of getting someone confirmed as NSA Director with my term ending only in a few months. Olivia, Mellie is going to need a crisis manager to deal with the shooting and its impact on her campaign. It would be best if neither you nor OPA was handling it."

"I agree," said Olivia. "We need to get Leo to help Mellie to deal with the media circus concerning the shooting and the status of her campaign."

"I'll call him in my role as the head of the Republican Party needing his help to salvage the campaign of the Republican Party presidential ticket."

Abby directed her attention to Fitz and said, "You can give him a call when we finish our meeting. He is probably awake right now."

"All right. Thanks, Abby."

With everyone debriefed on the status of the situation and charged with individual tasks, the meeting ended with everyone leaving the bunker with Olivia and Fitz remaining behind.

"How are you doing?" asked Fitz with a concerned voice. He knew in spite of the harm Rowan and Jake had caused, they were significant people in Olivia's life who died from unanticipated violent deaths. "I know this can't be easy. Regardless of what they have done, Rowan was your father and Jake had been your boyfriend…"

'I'm fine, Fitz," responded Olivia. "I'm not mourning for them probably because I'm not feeling any sadness for losing them."

Even though Olivia wasn't mourning now, Fitz didn't know if she was going to experience some "delayed" response to Rowan's and Jake's deaths. Should the delayed response occur, he would be there to help her through it.

With the latest turn of events concerning the presidential campaign, Olivia knew the media will be descending upon her and she would be under public scrutiny. She would probably have to issue some kind of public statement about her father and the shooting. There was also the matter of the media finding out she was living at the White House. With her and Fitz starting the process of healing their relationship and working towards reconciliation, Olivia hoped the two of them would weathered through the storm of the intense media scrutiny.

Fitz also had similar silent thoughts about what they were about to face once the media would be covering the story about Rowan's involvement with presidential campaign and the shooting. No doubt the media would have a field day with the information Olivia was living at the White House with him. He didn't know what would be the best course of action to take regarding Olivia's living arrangements in order to keep them on track to getting back together – Olivia moving into a hotel so to give her space to deal with the media attention or continuing living at the White House. While Fitz would prefer Olivia staying at the White House with him, which wasn't simply a matter of having her close to him but it was the practical matter of the security. If she stayed at the White House, at least there was no concern about the media "slipping into the place", as opposed to an overeager reporter managing to get inside a hotel and paying off the right people to get information as to which hotel room Olivia was staying in. However, Fitz also knew living at the White House was like living in a goldfish bowl at times, and under situations of intense public attention, it only heightened the "goldfish bowl" feeling. Fitz was thinking the best thing to do was to wait and see – if living at the White House coupled with the media scrutiny of the shooting got to be too much for Olivia, he would support her decision to move into a hotel.

While Fitz was relieved that the "Rowan matter" was finally resolved and the issue of the fixed Republic Party ticket was mitigated, he hadn't wanted the latest turn of events to be the resolution. He hoped the process of the "cleaning up" the mess wouldn't mean Olivia and his relationship would have to pay the price for it.

As Fitz was ruminating in his thoughts, Olivia made an "uncharacteristic" Olivia Pope statement. "Everything is going to be ok, Fitz. We'll get through this."

Fitz knew it was normally him who would make the reassuring comment or remark while Olivia would be the one maintaining the pragmatic view that things wouldn't necessarily turn out well. The fact Olivia was the one who made the comment meant she believed in them and that there was an "us."

'We will, Livie," said Fitz as he got up from his seat and held out his arms for Olivia to come to him. As Olivia wrapped her good arm around Fitz while he made sure it he didn't harm the broken arm with his embrace, the two of them held each other and drew strength from their embrace.


	27. Cleaning Up the Mess PT1

**Posted on**

After Olivia and Fitz left the bunker, Fitz headed to the Oval Office to call Leo on a secured phone line while Olivia went up to the Residence. Instead of going to her room, she went to Fitz's bedroom. It was almost 6AM when Olivia checked the time on her cell phone. She needed to call Quinn to give her an update.

While sitting on the sofa and using her burner cell phone, Olivia called Quinn. Quinn immediately answered the phone.

"What's the latest, Liv?" Quinn asked eagerly.

As Olivia recapped the clean-up plan with Quinn, she turned on the TV to find out if the media picked up on the story about the shooting. When the TV screen showed an image of an early morning news broadcast, she could see the "BREAKING NEWS" caption on the bottom of the screen and a photo of Jake on the corner of the screen. Underneath the caption, the headline ticker read "NSA Director-Republic Party VP Candidate Jake Ballard Dead" which were followed by a series of headline tickers - the shooting on the campaign trip, death of her father, Jake in a gunfight with Secret Service, FBI investigating the incident, Mellie and the campaign team returning to DC. After seeing the TV news had the story, she turned off the TV.

When Olivia finished speaking, Quinn asked, "Is there anything you need Charlie and me to do now?"

"Not right now but I'm going need to issue a public statement about my father later. We'll do that at OPA. I'm going to leave the White House through the underground tunnel. We can rendezvous and then head over to OPA."

"Ok. Just call me when you want to head over to OPA. By the way, Charlie has the package from Cyrus. He'll bring it with him when we meet up later."

With the latest crisis, Olivia had forgotten about the "favor" she asked from Cyrus. She thought she was going to use the information in the envelope to help her resign as Mellie's campaign manager. However, at this point, her taking any actions to officially resign would have to wait.

"All right. Thanks. I'll keep you posted on any new developments," said Olivia before she ended the call.

As Olivia was setting the phone down on the coffee table, Fitz entered the bedroom. After he sat down next to Olivia on the sofa, Fitz rested his back against the sofa cushion as he stretched out his long legs.

Were you able to talk with Leo?"

"Yeah. Abby was right about Leo being up. As we were talking on the phone, he told me the first TV news reports are coming out as he was watching the TV."

"I've already seen it."

"He'll be coming in later to meet," said Fitz as he closed his eyes to rest.

Olivia sensed how tired Fitz was since he only had a few hours of sleep before getting called to the CIA. "Fitz, why don't you have a catnap before you have start to start publicly deal with the shooting as well as running the country?" suggested Olivia.

"I will if you will," responded Fitz in a slightly flirty tone with his eyes opened.

Olivia chuckled slightly and shook her head at Fitz's incorrigibility. "All right, mister. I will," replied Olivia as stood up and extended her good hand for Fitz to take. After taking her hand, the two of them walked over to the bed. While Fitz stripped down to his shorts, Olivia went through the process of removing her broken arm out the sling before taking off her clothes and putting back on the short sleeve casual shirt Fitz had given to her wear last night. After setting her broken casted arm back in the sling, she and Fitz settled into a bed for a 30-minute nap.

Thirty minutes later, both Olivia and Fitz awakened from their catnap feeling somewhat refreshed and rejuvenated. Even though both secretly wished they could sleep some more but knew they couldn't because they were in crisis mode.

When Fitz headed to the bathroom to take his shower so he could start his day, Olivia was putting on her clothes so she could return to her bedroom so she could shower. Just when she opened the bedroom door, Olivia saw Karen standing outside looking upset. Seeing Karen outside Fitz's bedroom surprised Olivia and she didn't know if Karen was upset to see her leaving her father's bedroom.

"Karen…" said Olivia as she struggled to find words.

Karen seeing Olivia about to come of out her father's bedroom gave her a sense of relief as words tumbled of out her mouth. "Olivia, my friends have been messaging me. They said there was a shooting in Alaska…"

Olivia realizing Karen's distraught was because of the shooting said, "Your mom is safe, Karen. Unfortunately, Jake was a casualty." Olivia didn't want to say anything to Karen about Rowan being the other casualty.

"Why don't you come inside?" said Olivia as she gestured for Karen to come inside the bedroom. While they walked to the sitting area, Olivia said, "Your dad is taking a shower now. He hasn't had much sleep since getting the call from your mother about the shooting."

"Did you talk to her?" asked Karen as the two of them sat down on the sofa.

"Yes. When she called, she wanted to talk to your father and me at same time," replied Olivia. "Since your mom was safe, we didn't think there was a need to wake you up during the middle of night to tell you. Are you angry?"

"No."

Karen and Olivia's attention shifted when they saw Fitz, wearing a bathrobe and his hair damp from the shower, entered into the bedroom. Fitz was surprised to see Karen in her pajamas in his bedroom. He was about to ask Karen if something was wrong when Olivia said, "Karen found out about the shooting from her friends on text messaging, Fitz."

Fitz was wondering if he made a parental faux pas by not telling Karen about the shooting right after talking with Leo on the phone. Neither he nor Olivia had considered the possibility of teenagers on summer vacation being awake before 8AM. "I'm sorry for not telling you sooner," said Fitz as he sat down on next to Karen on the sofa.

"It's ok, Dad," said Karen in a reassuring voice. "My friends' messages just said there was a shooting in Alaska involving Mom's campaign trip. They didn't tell me Mom was ok which had me thinking the worst. But I should have known if something did happen to Mom, you would have told me once you found out."

"Your mother's agents did their jobs in keeping her safe when the shooting was taking place."

"What happened?"

Fitz proceeded to tell Karen the sequence of events related to the shooting without going into details on the reason for the fight that lead up to Jake shooting Rowan. When Karen heard Jake shot Rowan, her shock was observed through her facial expression. After Fitz finished telling the story, Karen said to Olivia, "I'm sorry about your dad, Olivia." Even though Karen hadn't liked Rowan, she knew Rowan was still Olivia's father and needed to be respectful.

"Thank you, Karen." Even though Olivia wasn't feeling grief for her father's death, she didn't want to dismiss Karen's sympathy since Karen didn't know the true extent of Rowan's destructive actions, which included the murder of her older brother Jerry.

"Karen, the rest of your mother's campaign trip been cancelled. She, Huck, and Marcus are flying home today," said Fitz.

"With Jake dead, what's going to happen with Mom's campaign?"

"She's continuing on with the campaign but there are things we need to figure out because of Jake's death, like finding a replacement candidate. She is also getting help in dealing with the media because of the shooting," replied Fitz.

"Ok. I'm glad she is getting help in dealing with the mess."

Fitz then said, "Karen, there is going to be a lot of media attention. I don't know how long the media is going to be focused on this story…"

"I understand, Dad." Karen knew Fitz was preparing her for the possibility of 24/7 coverage of Mellie and the latest "setback" to her campaign until another story came along. Also knowing her father had a long busy day ahead, she said, "I'm going to head back to my room now. You need to start work soon."

"I have to do the morning press briefing about the shooting and Jake's death but I'll try to come back up to the Residence to have breakfast later."

"Ok, Dad," said Karen before she gave him a kiss on the cheek. She then got up from the sofa and left the bedroom leaving Olivia and Fitz together.

Watching Karen and Fitz together made Olivia misty eyed. Fitz saw Olivia with her tears in her eyes and asked, "Are you ok, Livie?" He was concerned Olivia was experiencing a delayed grief response.

"I'm fine, Fitz," replied Olivia in an unconvincing firm voice. She broke down slightly as she said "It just that it was never that for my father and me."

"I know," said Fitz as moved closer on the sofa to hold Olivia. Both he and Olivia had the common link of having fathers who on the outward appearance of being successful men but lacked a moral core and the capability or capacity to be good fathers. As he held her, Fitz said, "Whatever you need, I'll be here for you, Livie. You can count on that."

"I know," said Olivia. After they separated from their embrace, Olivia said, "You need to get dress and meet up with Abby and Ethan before the press briefing. I'm going to head to my room to shower and change. Hopefully, you can have breakfast with the kids and me. I'll need to issue a statement about my father. I'm going to do that at OPA with Quinn and Charlie helping me."

"Ok," responded Fitz. Fitz knew it was better for Olivia to give her statement from her office rather than doing at the White House. There was no immediate need to give the media the fodder about Olivia living at the White House.

"A separate matter, Fitz. Teddy had a bad dream last night. He dreamt you got shot by my father or by one of my father's men. He was pretty upset and Jenn couldn't calm him down. I stayed with him until he fell back asleep."

Hearing Olivia being so maternal with Teddy was a piece of news that brightened Fitz's mood as he was dealing with the shooting. "Thanks, Livie. I'll talk with Teddy later about it." He paused before saying, "We should let him know Mellie is coming home today without going into too much detail about what has happened."

"Yeah," said Olivia before leaving Fitz's bedroom so he could get dressed.

After Fitz got dressed, he wanted to check on Teddy after hearing about Teddy's bad dream. He had planned to peek in Teddy's bedroom to make sure Teddy was sleeping soundly but when he peered into the room, Teddy opened his eyes and saw him.

"Daddy, you're here!" said Teddy excitedly as he sat up in bed.

Fitz walked into room and sat down on the bed so he could give Teddy a reassuring hug. After they separated from their hug, Fitz said, "Olivia told me you had a bad dream."

"I did. The bad men shot you," said Teddy in a somber voice.

"Everything is ok, Teddy. The bad men are gone."

"You promise?"

"I promise," replied Fitz with a big reassuring smile. "Also, Mommy is coming home today."

"Will I go to Mommy's home today?"

"Maybe. Mommy and I will talk about it when she comes here later," replied Fitz. "It's still early. Why don't you sleep some more? I need to go to work but I'll try to have breakfast with you, Karen, and Olivia."

"Ok, Daddy. I love you."

"I love you, too," said Fitz with a smile as he helped Teddy get settled back into bed and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

After leaving Teddy's bedroom, Fitz headed down to the Oval to wait for Abby and Ethan to give him a draft copy of the press briefing about Jake's death. While Fitz was waiting, he got a phone call from Victoria letting him know the plane bringing Mellie, Huck, and Marcus plus Rowan's and Jake's bodies back in DC was in the air before they proceeded to go over responses to possible questions the press corps would have about the shooting.

"Fitzgerald, you'll need to be prepared to answer questions about Rowan. Since Rowan was Olivia's father and she was your ex-girlfriend…"

"I understand," responded Fitz in a somber voice. In Fitz's mind, he could already imagine the press asking him if he had met Rowan when he had been dating Olivia.

"Victoria, speaking of Rowan, his cover as a Smithsonian curator…"

"No need to worry, Fitzgerald. Rowan's cover as a Smithsonian curator is all the press is going find out about him. Any connection to the CIA and B6-13 has been eliminated."

"Good. Thank you, Victoria."

"Your welcome, Fitzgerald," said Victoria. She paused for a moment before asking, "How is Olivia doing?"

"She's fine." Fitz didn't know how to say Olivia wasn't grieving for her father's death. "She's going to be issuing a public statement about Rowan's death later on at her office."

"All right. In the perfect world, we would have hidden Rowan's involvement with the campaign…"

"I know and Olivia understands why we are doing this."

At that moment, Abby and Ethan entered into the Oval Office and approached the Resolute Desk. Seeing them enter into the Oval, Fitz ended his call with Victoria. He then turned his attention to Abby and Ethan and Abby handed him the draft of the public statement that she and Ethan prepared for Fitz to deliver at the press briefing.

"Thank you," said Fitz as he took the draft.

After reading the draft and penciling in revisions and edits that were more in sync with his speaking style, Fitz got up from his chair with the statement in his hand and said, "All right. It's time to face the wolves." The three of them headed out of the Oval to the press briefing room.

While Ethan thought Fitz's comment was meant as a joke, albeit on the dark side, Abby knew there was more than an element of truth to Fitz's comment when the media would find out Olivia was living with Fitz at the White House. For Fitz, he had said out loud what he was thinking since neither Ethan nor Abby knew he and Olivia were getting back together, and the media would be no less merciless than the last time in covering their relationship, especially in the backdrop of a presidential campaign scandal.


End file.
